Residential Colleges 7 and 8 temporarily renamed New College East and West

Though no donor has been publicly announced to sponsor the construction of the University’s two new residential colleges, Princeton has temporarily renamed them “New College East” and “New College West.”

New College West, previously named College 7, will house students now living at First College. After First College is demolished, the University’s eighth residential college, Hobson College, will be built at its current site. Hobson College is scheduled to be completed in 2026.

New College East, previously named College 8, will support Princeton’s goal of expanding the undergraduate population by 10 percent. Both New College East and New College West are being built south of Poe Field.

The University had previously announced that Residential College 7 would be named Perelman College, following a donation by the Perelman Family Foundation. However, the Perelman name has since been removed due to unfulfilled payments.

The University plans on announcing new names for these colleges “at a later date,” according to Deputy University Spokesperson Michael Hotchkiss.

“These designations are simply placeholders to facilitate the process of room draw and the work of recruiting residential college student leadership for next academic year,” he wrote in an email to The Daily Princetonian. “For this interim period, we think New College East and New College West will be more useful and specific than College 7 and College 8.”

Miguel Caireta ’25, a member of First College who will live in the newly constructed residential colleges next year, told the ‘Prince’ that he believes the name of the college is insignificant.

“Life at Princeton is so intense and full of work that the name of my college is the last thing I think about,” Caireta said.

“If they don’t have any donors to name their colleges after, they should consider just naming their colleges after important figures in the current Princeton community or alumni that have contributed significantly to the world or the Princeton community, following Princeton’s motto,” he said.

New Colleges East and West are set to open at the start of the 2022–2023 academic year, according to the University’s construction website.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated on Nov. 5 to clarify the context for the renaming of residential colleges New College East and New College West.

Isabel Yip is a news contributor for the ‘Prince.’ She can be reached at isabelyip@princeton.edu or @isaayip on Instagram.