The Justice

Director of Residence Life Richard DeCapua (second from left) assigned the last available rooms to students as they waited in the Usdan Student Center.

With Deroy Hall under renovation and Scheffres Hall set aside for sophomores, next fall will find only six of the eight dorms in the two first-year quads occupied by first-years-a number made possible by Admissions' plans to admit a smaller incoming first-year class.

There will be enough housing for the incoming class of 2011, Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Jean Eddy said.

In order to accommodate the large class of 2010, the Of­­­­fice of Residence Life added Scheffres Hall to the list of available housing for rising sophomores. Director of Residence Life Richard DeCapua said Scheffres is a good choice for sophomores because it is the most removed from the other three buildings in North Quad.

"It seemed like if we could get it all sophomores they would be able to really make it their own and really have a sense of an upper-class building."

Eddy said that only six dorms are required to house next fall's first-year class. She said Admissions is bringing in a smaller number of first-year and transfer students because the University tries to keep undergraduate enrollment at 3200 students at all times.

"Given increased retention and a whole host of factors, we don't need to bring in more than a total of 728 [first-year students]. That allowed us to use Scheffres for sophomores," Eddy said.

DeCapua said that the larger each incoming class is, the harder it becomes to house everyone. He said it's always possible to turn more rooms into lofted triples, but that a large number of triples diminishes the quality of living in residence halls after a certain point.

He said that ResLife has been working closely with Admissions since the beginning of the academic year to make sure there is enough housing for next year. Dean of Admissions Gil Villanueva said he could not confirm comments from ResLife officials concerning next year's housing.

DeCapua said the campus will have a net gain of 85 beds when new buildings are completed in 2009.

He mentioned the possibility of alternate housing options between now and 2009: "There could be more buildings happening, there could be more renovations that occur that give us more spaces as well," DeCapua said.

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