Returning Students Face Housing Difficulties
The Crunch Gets Tighter
Brian Davidson
Last Updated: 9/27/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 2 next >
A student who spends a semester abroad must contend with a host of concerns. Will I settle in well? Will I find friends in my program? Will I be able to speak the language? The zeal that eventually overtakes these students generally sweeps away the concerns within the first few weeks. Yet students who study abroad in the fall semester and return to Claremont in the spring must deal with yet another question: Where am I going to live when I get back?
Since "room draw" only takes place at the end of the spring semester, students who will be abroad in the fall must fill out a preference sheet, listing where they would prefer to live. From then on, these students are left mostly to chance. A student who has more credits has a better chance of getting his preferences, but there are no guarantees. Students generally acknowledge the risk that they are taking when they choose to go abroad. "I didn't expect to get any of my preferences," admits Jeremy Haas, CMC '08, who studied abroad in Cairo. What the students do expect, however, is for the people in charge of housing-the Dean of Students office and the Director of Residential Life-to try to accommodate them and take their status as juniors into account.
On November 27, 2006, David "Fid" Castro, CMC's Director of Residential Life, emailed students studying abroad. In the email, Castro admitted that "we are really, really crowded." He warned the students that they "probably will not get their first choices" and that some "might even end up in triples or quads." The students' fears have been borne out. At the beginning of the semester, "every single bed that could have a body in it had a body in it," claims Castro, and CMC has been forced to "get creative." CMC continues to house students in so-called "temporary spaces" including the lounges and apartments in Fawcett and Auen Halls and the apartment in Phillips Hall. We have even arranged for one student live in a Scripps dorm.
How did CMC become so overcrowded? By last summer, Castro had learned that CMC, like most other California colleges, had once again overenrolled freshmen. For several years, more freshmen have accepted admission to CMC than the college had statistically predicted. To deal with the overcrowding, CMC built new rooms out of the lounges in Stark Hall. Castro also acknowledges that the college considered other measures, such as purchasing temporary trailers as Pomona College did recently, but ultimately it determined that such a solution would not be cost-effective. "This [housing crunch] is definitely the worst [it has been] in…five years," Castro claims.
Since "room draw" only takes place at the end of the spring semester, students who will be abroad in the fall must fill out a preference sheet, listing where they would prefer to live. From then on, these students are left mostly to chance. A student who has more credits has a better chance of getting his preferences, but there are no guarantees. Students generally acknowledge the risk that they are taking when they choose to go abroad. "I didn't expect to get any of my preferences," admits Jeremy Haas, CMC '08, who studied abroad in Cairo. What the students do expect, however, is for the people in charge of housing-the Dean of Students office and the Director of Residential Life-to try to accommodate them and take their status as juniors into account.
On November 27, 2006, David "Fid" Castro, CMC's Director of Residential Life, emailed students studying abroad. In the email, Castro admitted that "we are really, really crowded." He warned the students that they "probably will not get their first choices" and that some "might even end up in triples or quads." The students' fears have been borne out. At the beginning of the semester, "every single bed that could have a body in it had a body in it," claims Castro, and CMC has been forced to "get creative." CMC continues to house students in so-called "temporary spaces" including the lounges and apartments in Fawcett and Auen Halls and the apartment in Phillips Hall. We have even arranged for one student live in a Scripps dorm.
How did CMC become so overcrowded? By last summer, Castro had learned that CMC, like most other California colleges, had once again overenrolled freshmen. For several years, more freshmen have accepted admission to CMC than the college had statistically predicted. To deal with the overcrowding, CMC built new rooms out of the lounges in Stark Hall. Castro also acknowledges that the college considered other measures, such as purchasing temporary trailers as Pomona College did recently, but ultimately it determined that such a solution would not be cost-effective. "This [housing crunch] is definitely the worst [it has been] in…five years," Castro claims.
Be the first to comment on this story