The deans’ office released the first round of off-campus permissions Feb. 7, allowing about 100 upperclassmen and women off for next semester.

According to Dean of Women Rebekah Bollen, off-campus permissions are granted based on high school graduation year and credits accumulated at Hillsdale. Bollen said the process has been the same for many years to ensure that older students receive permission before younger students. 

“We have not changed the policy at all,” Bollen said. “This is the standard process and procedure that we’ve been using for several years, and it’s what’s posted online when students apply for off-campus permission.”

According to the deans’ office, the number of off-campus spots changes year to year based on the number of anticipated graduating students, anticipated incoming students, and college-owned beds that need to be filled. 

According to Dean of Men Aaron Petersen, the amount of college-owned housing has increased in recent years, leading to a decline in the number of permissions granted. 

“The bottom line is that we added another women’s dorm, around 50 beds, and also the apartment units at the corner of Fayette and Hillsdale, which is about another 50 beds,” Petersen said. “We each were able to allow about 100 students off-campus for the coming year, which basically covers all the seniors.”

Along with considering Hillsdale credits and high school graduation year, Bollen said the school tries to honor seniors’ desires to move off campus in their final year. 

“We have a commitment to the students that if you want to be off campus senior year, we want to honor that,” Bollen said. “That may sometimes mean overextending the number of permissions I have, which happened this year. I can’t say that this will always be the case, but as much as we can, we’re going to try and prioritize seniors getting off.”  

Bollen said since more senior women requested to be off campus than there were spots, permissions were not granted to junior women in the first round. According to Bollen, senior women have a two-week period to accept or deny the permission, and depending on how many decline, permissions will go to junior women on a rolling basis. 

“If enough seniors turn down their permissions, we can move down our respective lists in the next month or two into the list of juniors,” Petersen said. 

Last year, Koon Residence was changed from men’s to women’s housing, which, according to Bollen, was prompted by an unexpected change in the number of incoming freshmen students. 

“Last year, we anticipated having fewer freshman women, and then those numbers changed at the last minute and we realized we needed more campus space for women than for men,” Bollen said. “At that time, we had already let many women off campus, so we decided it would be best to give that permission to older men, not younger women.”

According to Petersen, Koon, which houses 26 residents, will transition back to a men’s dorm for the incoming 2025-2026 school year in anticipation of having more men on campus. 

“Koon is a swing dorm, which simply means it is one of the dorms that will swing back and forth from men’s to women’s and vice versa, depending if we need a balance of beds between the men and women,” Petersen said. 

Switching Koon for the coming year will open up more possibilities for women to go off campus, according to Bollen. 

“This year, we know our numbers and that we will need more room for men, so we flipped Koon back to men’s so that there is a higher likelihood that we can give more younger women off campus since so many older women already received it,” Bollen said. 

Junior Madison Gilbert, head resident assistant of Koon, said she is disappointed that Koon is returning to a men’s dorm. 

“I am sad that Koon is being switched back to a men’s dorm since we just rebuilt the culture of it as a women’s dorm,” Gilbert said. “It is also a cozy space that the women of the dorm this year truly made it their home. I don’t think it’ll have that same feel with men reentering its halls.” 

Lydia Marshall, a sophomore and current Koon resident, also said she is disappointed about the change.

“If this is what has to be done to fit everyone on campus, then it’s alright,” Marshall said. “There was some frustration because some of us thought there was a high chance it would stay a women’s dorm, and the thought of staying in the same room for two years was really appealing. The decision came out of the blue.” 

Marshall said she experienced the abrupt switch of Koon last year from men’s to women’s during the housing application and was nervous about what the dorm would be like when it was time to move in. 

“It switched two hours before our time slot for registration, which was after many girls had already gotten rooms and most of the other dorms were full,” Marshall said. “I texted my friend who had lived in Koon for two years and asked her what the rooms were like and her experience there. She was really positive about it being a women’s dorm so we signed up for Koon and moved in in August not knowing what our room would look like or how big it would be.” 

Gilbert said she is optimistic about the future of Koon, even with the difficulty of building culture as it switches between men and women from year to year. 

“I hope Koon will return to a women’s dorm in the future years,” Gilbert said. “Especially since I know some amazing girls who would be super excited to RA there and build the dorm back up to its cozy state.”