Joe Pelletier

Although nothing has been finalized as of yet, indications are that next year’s freshman will move into some of the upperclassman suites. The dorms most likely to be reassigned to freshman appear to be some combination of Larson, Troup and Perlroth.

“Our plans include expanding the first year areas into the Suites and to significantly reduce if not eliminate the number of triples in Irma/Dana,” Director of Residential Life Cindy Long Porter said.

Porter made it very clear, however, that the plans are not set in stone. The administration’s policy is to wait until after the freshman housing deposit deadline to announce decisions about housing locations, so no announcement will be made until at least May 1. The final decision will be made by President John L. Lahey and his cabinet. Lahey told The Chronicle in an earlier interview that he expected to convert all of Irma and Dana to doubles.

“Part of our planning process is to eliminate the overcrowding that occurs each year in the first year areas,” Long Porter said. “This year, for example, we have not returned any common area space (lounges) back for students. We believe that with the additional beds available at York Hill we can do better.”

The university expects 520 beds to be ready at the York Hill campus for next spring, with roughly another 1,000 still to be completed. The majority of those 520 beds are planned to be set aside for seniors, though.

There remains a possibility that freshman enrollment may drop next year, as applications since December have dropped for the first time in 20 years. This likely leaves the school with the options of lowering admissions standards or accepting fewer students than usual, although Lahey was adamant that the quality of accepted students would not decrease.

Stay with The Chronicle for more information as this story develops.