Courtesy of Jessie Cheung

Due to the large size of the class of 2025, Dean of Yale College Marvin Chun announced changes to housing for incoming first years and sophomores. Unlike in years past, this fall incoming first years in Berkeley, Ezra Stiles, Grace Hopper, Jonathan Edwards, Pierson and Trumbull colleges will live on Old Campus with sophomores in Branford, Davenport, Morse and Saybrook, while the other first years will live in the college proper.

Originally in January, information directed toward prospective first year counselors, or FroCos,  for the 2021-22 academic year revealed that all first-year students would live in their residential colleges, with the decision regarding which students would be living on Old Campus not being finalized yet.

“Old Campus does not have the capacity to accommodate first-year students returning from their gap years, and we want to keep first-year students together and help them connect with the Yale community,” Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Hannah Peck wrote in an email to the News in January. 

In pre-pandemic years, most first years lived on Old Campus, with the exception of first-year students in Benjamin Franklin, Pauli Murray, Silliman and Timothy Dwight colleges, which house their new students in the college. During the 2020-21 academic year though, first year students in all 14 colleges lived in the residential colleges themselves. 

But in April, the Yale community received an update from Chun detailing new plans for undergraduate housing. The email detailed a mixed solution, similar to previous years with some first years living on Old Campus with sophomores, but with more first year students living in the residential college.

“Next year, we expect to welcome our largest enrollment ever, and so the heads and deans have had to be very creative and flexible in their plans,” Dean of Student Affairs Melanie Boyd wrote to the News. “Recognizing that no single solution would work for all 14 colleges given their individual housing configurations, they have come up with a variety of solutions tailored to their needs.”

Similar to pre-pandemic years, first years in Benjamin Franklin, Pauli Murray, Silliman and Timothy Dwight colleges would live in the college proper. But next year, first years in Branford, Davenport, Morse and Saybrook will — unlike pre-pandemic years — also live in the residential colleges themselves, while sophomores in those colleges would live on Old Campus. 

Joining those sophomores on Old Campus will be the first years from Berkeley, Ezra Stiles, Grace Hopper, Jonathan Edwards, Pierson and Trumbull colleges, whose colleges will return to their pre-pandemic format of first-years on Old Campus and sophomores, juniors and seniors in the colleges. 

“There’s a wonderful spirit of openness and experimentation, as well as a deep thoughtfulness about opportunities for each residential college,” Boyd wrote.

Old Campus, the oldest section of Yale’s campus, can be found at 344 College St.