News from
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Office of Communications
Stanhope Hall
Princeton, N.J. 08544-5264Contact: Justin Harmon (609) 258-5732
Date: September 11, 1998
University Acquires Two Properties from Eating Club
PRINCETON, N.J. -- In accordance with the terms of an agreement struck a year ago with the Prospect Street eating club known as Dial, Elm and Cannon (DEC), Princeton University has assumed ownership of two club properties, Dial Lodge and Elm Club.
DEC retains an option to purchase Notestein Hall, the former Cannon Club building that currently houses the Office of Population Research, by April 1999. DEC is currently seeking to raise the funds that would allow it to complete the purchase and to refit the building as a dining and social facility. The club notified its undergraduate members this summer that it would suspend its operations, pending the acquisition and renovation of the new facility.
While some DEC members had intended to take rooms in the Dial and Elm buildings, the club notified them last spring of the possibility it would suspend operations, in time for them to draw for undergraduate housing. Regular University dining contracts also are available to DEC members.
Dial Lodge will eventually be used for academic purposes. The building will be renovated, then incorporated into the social sciences complex to include Robertson, Corwin, Fisher, and Bendheim halls, and the planned Wallace Social Sciences Building.
The University is now using Elm Club to house 24 undergraduates until mid-October, when the final section of the newly constructed dormitory, Scully Hall, will become available.
In May 1997, the University announced it had reached an agreement with DEC that would provide a framework for transferring its Elm and Dial properties to the University; in exchange, the University would transfer the Cannon property and a total cash payment of $2 million to the club. As part of the agreement, DEC immediately transferred the back lot of its Dial property to the University. The lot, which was used by the club for student parking, will become part of the site for the Wallace building.
DEC elected not to avail itself of an option in last year's agreement that would have allowed its members to continue to use the Elm facility until the club's renovations of Cannon were complete.
"When DEC reopens in its new facility, we expect that it will be a good option for students," said Dean of Student Life Janina Montero. "We are working with students in the meantime to get past the short-term inconveniences implicit in the club's plan."
DEC is a single club that was formed in 1990 through the consolidation of Dial, Elm and Cannon clubs. Until this fall, members of the club took their meals and socialized in Elm, and some members also lived in Dial. Cannon Club closed its doors in 1975 and was then obtained and renovated by the University to become, as Notestein Hall, the home of the Office of Population Research.