PrincetonUniversity
 

Report of the Four-Year College Program Planning Committee
August 20, 2002

  C. Housing

Housing assignments: Entering freshmen will continue to be assigned randomly to colleges, i.e., incoming students will not be offered the opportunity to express a preference. The Committee acknowledged that some students might have a definite preference for (or against) a four-year college; however, we wish to avoid the separation of students into groups based on preference or perceived preference in affiliation or in living accommodations.

Students will remain in their assigned college for two years. As is currently the case, changes will not be permitted. This policy is intended to strengthen individual advising relationships as well as the bonds of community within each college.

In accordance with our intention for all students in paired colleges to be treated fairly and equally, rising juniors who reside in either of the colleges in a pair will have equal preference in drawing into the four-year college.

The expectation will be that rising juniors who draw into a four-year college will live there for both junior and senior years. Staying for two years will, however, not be required. Preference in room draw for the four-year college will be given first to rising seniors already living in the college; second, to rising juniors already living in the college and in the paired college; third, to rising juniors in other colleges; and fourth, to rising seniors who are living outside the college but want to return. Complications will arise when students from different categories choose to room together. We assume that the Housing Office, in consultation with the Council of Masters and the Residence Committee, will devise appropriate algorithms to deal with these situations.

The maximum size for groups of rising juniors and seniors drawing together into a four-year college will be eight. The Committee acknowledges the preference of most upperclass students to live together with friends. To enhance the attractiveness of four-year colleges to juniors and seniors, we support such blocks, but we propose to maintain the current limit on the number within each room-draw group so no group is so large as to occupy a majority of a living area or hallway.

Design elements: Rooms for juniors and seniors will be spread throughout the college, but will be clustered to permit draw groups to live in the same area. Suites for graduate students will also be dispersed throughout the college. As part of this arrangement, the Committee envisions areas, or zones of interaction, where upperclass students can live in proximity to their friends and associates, and where those students engaged in junior or senior independent work can have the privacy, space, and resources required to accomplish their work. At the same time, the "cluster" plan would provide opportunities for upperclass students to interact with freshmen and sophomores in hallways, alcoves, and other open common areas. Thus, each student would have maximum opportunity to feel a sense of belonging within a cohort or friendship group, while contributing, as a member of that group, to the diversity of the larger community.

While the precise arrangement of rooms remains to be determined by the architects, the Committee considered some ways of accomplishing the twin objectives of building a community of juniors and seniors while at the same time fostering easy interaction between upperclass and underclass students. One approach would be to cluster suites for upperclass students at the ends of freshman-sophomore hallways, with lounges for use by all students located nearby. A second approach would be to locate upperclass rooms around stairwells, thus creating vertical as well as horizontal clusters. Such an approach would accommodate draw groups of varying sizes; it would also allow the presence of upperclass students to be felt by more students, since virtually everyone uses the stairs.

There are a number of desirable configurations for rooms for upperclass students. Singles should be one large room or two small rooms (one bedroom and one common room). Doubles should be one common room with an attached double bedroom or two small bedrooms with an attached common room. In lieu of conventional three-room quads, upperclass quads would consist of five rooms: four small bedrooms and a large common room. The upperclass housing stock should be made up primarily of singles and doubles, with a smaller number of quads. For upperclass students, bathrooms should be located within suites.

For freshmen and sophomores, bedrooms and common rooms are likely to be somewhat smaller in square footage. The preponderance of rooms will most likely be three-room quads, with the remainder mainly doubles. Communal bathrooms should be located in the hallways in order to foster interaction among students.

In planning the distribution and configuration of living spaces in the four-year colleges, it is essential to incorporate flexibility to accommodate the possibility that the numbers of upperclass students who choose to live in colleges may change over time. Room configurations that are just right for the hundred upperclass students who live in each four-year college in the first years of the new college system may not be what is needed the more distant future. We need to be able to convert rooms originally planned for freshman and sophomore occupancy into upperclass living spaces, and vice versa, as student preferences evolve.

The Committee believes strongly that Whitman College and, to whatever extent possible, the other four-year colleges, must be made maximally appealing in order to attract a representative cross-section of the student population. Common areas must be gracious. Such design elements as attractive lighting, spacious hallways and patios, access to outdoor green space, and other amenities will enable the four-year colleges to become one of the most attractive options at Princeton.