Posted by Rebecca Orbach & Pat Klimaszewski
The Office of Residential Life is continuing to de-triple first-year students in response to the over-enrollment of the class of 2014.
In August there were 184 triples, in January 156 and 108 as of Feb 17.
Residential Life is encouraging upperclassmen that are living in the dorms to move to Scribner Village, Northwoods Apartments or off-campus housing to make room for the First Year Experience London students and first-years who were previously living in triples.
All first-year students who spent their fall semester in London are currently being housed in single occupancy dorm rooms.
Enrolled students who were off-campus in the fall entered the housing system as "student studying off-campus," and were entered into the same algorithm as returning study-abroad participants.
Students in this housing category are typically juniors and are given preference for single rooms.
This year's room selection process is different than that of previous year's.
In the past, an e-mail was sent to students in triples asking if they wanted to be de-tripled.
This year, that e-mail was not sent and, instead, students were expected to confront Residential Life if they wanted to be de-tripled.
This change aimed to focus de-tripling efforts toward rooms with the most severe housing complaints, such as irreconcilable differences among roommates.
Many first-years are uncomfortable with living in triples, but it is impossible to accommodate every student's desire to live in a single or double room.
To alleviate space issues in triples, Residential Life suggests utilizing other spaces on campus such as the additional study rooms in the residence halls and the new game room in Case Center.
"Next year will be a very similar situation with triples," said Associate Director of Residential Life Ann Marie Przywara.