Due to continuing construction, many students placed in the New Village dorms for this year have not been able to move into their proper rooms. Instead, they have been placed in temporary housing in some of the other residence halls, including Mountainview and Dana English Hall.
With the variation in room placement comes a variation in students’ experiences with the temporary housing so far.
Caitlin Lashley, a sophomore occupational therapy major, was placed in New Village when her group had to rearrange their numbers due to changes in Village occupancy, and therefore did not receive a lottery number in the first round. She and the rest of her group are currently living in connecting lounges in Dana English Hall.
“It’s definitely better than I expected, because I’m living next door to my other roommates,” she said. “It’s nice that we’re living on a floor with all sophomores. I expected to be living in one of the small Dana rooms.”
Mark Bouchard, a sophomore political science major, has different views based on his placement. Like Lashley’s group, his group did not originally receive a lottery number. However, his group was split up and placed throughout Mountainview.
“It is very comfortable since Mountainview is so spacious,” he said. “However, it is unfair that the original inhabitants of the suite must be crammed into three rooms Bouchard and his roommate currently occupy one of the doubles in their suite. Once they move into their New Village suite, the students in the triples of their Mountainview suite will be able to use the double Bouchard is in now.
While Bouchard is not disappointed in the room itself, he is not pleased that he was unable to choose his living arrangement.
“I signed up with a particular bunch of guys in order for us to focus on our studies, since last year we had rooms that did not really facilitate studying,” he said. “By the luck of Res. Life’s random placing we got thrown into a room that is very much the same as ours last year.”
As the school year has begun, and all New Village residents have been placed in their temporary housing, student fears have shifted to the status of the construction, and when they will be able to move in.
“I expected the buildings to be further along, but when I looked it seems like they didn’t even start my building,” Lashley said. “My fear is that we won’t even be able to move in by the beginning of next semester.”
In the meantime, students are dealing with their various situations as best they can, but that does not mean they are happy about it.
“The guys are alright but this was definitely not what I signed up for, since the lottery forced us to choose rooms that were not built yet,” Bouchard said. “So overall I am unhappy about the way that Res. Life is handling this situation.”
