With Vanderbilt Hall under renovation next year, Old Campus — the traditional home of Yale freshmen — will house freshmen from only seven of the 12 residential colleges.
Dean of Administrative Affairs John Meeske said that next year’s freshman housing configuration is definite. Berkeley, Morse and Ezra Stiles College freshmen will live in Swing Space, while Branford College freshmen will move to Lawrance Hall. Jonathan Edwards College will continue to house its freshmen in Farnam Hall, Davenport College in Welch Hall, Saybrook and Pierson colleges in Lanman-Wright Hall, and Trumbull and Calhoun colleges in Bingham Hall. Timothy Dwight and Silliman College freshmen will continue the tradition of living in their colleges.
Annexed JE and Branford upperclassmen will live in McClellan Hall, and annexed students from Trumbull, Berkeley, Calhoun, Morse and possibly Stiles will live in Durfee Hall.
“I think it will be a wonderful arrangement,” Meeske said. “We have a few extra rooms in Lawrance, Farnam and Welch — we’ll try to do some de-crowding. There’s more annex space available than in the past.”
Meeske said he and Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg are still working out details surrounding the freshmen living situation in Swing Space.
“We have to figure out how we’ll divide up Swing Space” Meeske said. “The top floor has sloping roofs so the volume is smaller, so there will be three per suite. Is it really fair for one college to have all triples?”
Administrators are also considering the possibility of single-sex floors, Meeske said.
“They all have internal bathrooms, so maybe it’s not such a big issue,” Meeske said. “Those [rooms] facing York Square Place are more popular than those facing the power plant. We’ll try to have a variety so one college doesn’t get the less popular area.”
Meeske said he is anticipating that the process will be a bit complicated, but added that it is not necessary to make all of the decisions until after Commencement.
Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead told the Yale Daily News last month that, although the housing situation is not ideal, the renovation of Vanderbilt is worth the trouble.
“Someone has to move so that we can renovate Vanderbilt — we’re not doing this to inconvenience people,” Brodhead said. “We’re putting up with a certain inconvenience for one year to make Vanderbilt functional and habitable for the future.”