The co-ed Suites Residence will become a men’s dormitory this fall, according to Dean of Men Aaron Petersen. In addition, the College Park Townhouses, which the college has used as a quarantine location throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, will become a women’s residence.
The change was made, in part, to accommodate the large number of rising senior women who requested to live off campus, Petersen said. Eighty-five rising senior women applied for the permission for next school year.
“We’d like to give at least all the seniors off-campus permission,” Petersen said. “We need to take away beds to balance it out. If we didn’t make any moves, half of those senior girls wouldn’t have gotten off-campus.”
The townhouses hold about 40 beds for residents compared to the 60 beds in the women’s portion of the Suites. Because of the decreased number of beds in women’s housing on campus, all the senior women who requested it received off-campus permission.
The cost of the Suites will also be reduced next year to $3,550 per semester, while the Townhouses will cost $3,800 per semester, which was the price of the Suites. The meal plan offering 10 meals per week, typically only open to students living off-campus or in the Suites, will be available to residents in both locations.
Even if the Suites had remained a co-ed dormitory, Petersen said the decision to lower the cost had already been made.
Because so much effort went into helping the Suites work as a co-ed dorm, Suites RA and sophomore Regina Gravrok said she’ll be interested to see how the environment changes as a men’s dorm.
“The key with the Suites for a lot of the residents is that it’s a very chill, respectful dorm,” Gravrok said. “We understand that a lot of them are either upperclassmen or athletes, and they have their own lives, and they’re very busy lives, so we respect that and keep offering support.”
Gravrok described the Suites as a support system for students who need it.
“It was definitely a regretful situation, because you put a lot of work into a dorm, and you really like what’s happening,” Gravrok said. “But it’s understandable, and once I spent some time thinking about it, it seemed more logical.”
While junior Faith Linton said she will miss her home in the Suites, she added she’s thankful for the townhouses as an alternative to other dorms.
“I realized I didn’t want to go back to a dorm,” Linton said. “In the Suites setup, I loved that I could host people, and it was a smaller group of girls.”
Since the Townhouses have some of the intimacy of living in a house, while still being college property, Linton said they remind her of the Suites.
“I grew a lot and learned so much just by living in the Suites and being with the people that were there,” Linton said. “It will be sad not to have that anymore.”
Suites House Director Haakon Santaella, a senior, said he’s enjoyed helping to establish a more engaging and meaningful culture at the Suites.
“It’s an honor to have been a part of the team for the last two years,” Santaella said. “I’m excited for the team they’re going to be bringing in next year.”
The new arrangement of the Suites may not be permanent, according to Petersen.
“We try to avoid abrupt changes to housing arrangements or drastic changes,” Petersen said. “We think these are reasonable, and we hope students weren’t too inconvenienced by them.”