Foreign study numbers, dorm improvements impact housing

Though Adam Rockman, coordinator of undergraduate housing, has said that no students are "left out in the cold" after room draw, some 117 wait-listed rising juniors wonder which dorm they will call home next year.

Several factors, including dormitory renovations and fewer vacancies because of a drop in foreign study, will make housing tight for next year, and those wait listed students may receive a housing assignment as late as August.

The wait list, Rockman said, is on the "higher side of average." However, in Rockman's six years at the University, the wait list has ranged from 90 to 130 students.

"In my time here, and as far back as anyone can remember, we have never not been able to offer a housing assignment to everyone," Rockman said. "Whether or not they accepted it, that is up to them."

Rockman said the procedure is to fill the remaining beds after students resign their housing contracts due to a leave of absence or foreign study. Once those vacancies are filled, the office moves to find University-owned housing around campus, including apartments across from Forbes College and on University Place.

"If it turns out we have to use those spaces again, we will," he said. "We'll use everything to get people housed."

Rockman attributed to the jump in wait-listed juniors to the 20 fewer students going abroad, consequently leaving fewer open rooms.

"That number is down by about 20 from where it was in previous years," he said. "We'd expect 20 more students by this point in the year."

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The housing department also attributes the decrease to the world situation, such as "Middle East wars, and SARS epidemics," Rockman said.

The closure of 1903 Hall and its 130 rooms for the next academic year for sprinkler installation — to bring the building up to the state codes imposed after the Seton Hall University fire several years ago — compounds the issue.

Though Rockman maintains all students will be situated on-campus, Benet Kearney '05, one of the students wait-listed, remains anxious.

"I think that the housing department seems to view housing as giving you a bed and a roof," she said. "That doesn't meant that you'll be put in an environment where you can be productive and you can work."

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Kearney, who was hoping for a triple room, has resigned to the fact that she will not be grouped with her friends if she wants to live in a central spot on campus.

An off-campus apartment shared with friends is an option, but "a very small option," she said.