Dean Eaton is the most popular housing option for second-year students despite being one of the oldest residence halls on campus. Looking at first-year students’ choices in previous years, single-room housing became a common option for rising sophomores regardless of extra charge.
The trends for second-year housing have been shifting recently, according to the Senior Associate Director of Campus Activities and Residential Engagement, Stacie Olney LaPierre. This year, application numbers for theme houses, special needs housing and lifestyle floors dropped slightly compared to the other years. The interest in multiples was similar to previous years.
There is a minor increase in the number of people moving into Greek houses for the next semester. Greek house leaders decide how many of their members should live in their house depending on “recruitment numbers and broad numbers and graduating senior numbers,” Olney described. “Next year, we will see more groups who need all their members to live in their houses due to their current resident numbers.”
Although students cannot apply to Greek houses until their second year, they can start exploring Greek life options. “Greek 100 is a great way for first-years to get a sense of Greek house communities as a whole,” said Sharon Rodriguez, the residential coordinator for upper-class communities.
Theme house applications were competitive this spring, with high interest from first-year students. “We have some houses that had enough applications to create a waitlist for the first time in a while,” Rodriguez highlighted the large applicant pool for theme houses this semester.
Campus Kitchens, a theme house on campus, reached a record number of applications, with 15 applications for five available spots for Fall 2024. “The seniors said, historically, this is probably the year we had the most applications,” reported a house member, Kylie Burnett ’26. Another house member, Sophia Nickolas ’26, talked about the importance of having sophomores in the house who can serve for their third and fourth years, too. “It’s really important to have young people coming in to carry the torch for the next years,” she said.
Megan Putney is the I-House advisor and assistant director of international student services. “One thing I noticed this year is that a lot of first-year students wanted to live in the I-House, but they were applying to be community assistants due to their passion for leadership,” she said. Despite this factor, I-House is at full capacity for the next semester with the rising number of applications from domestic students. Inna Saribekyan ’27 is an international student who applied to become a community assistant. After her long preparation and application process, she was placed on an alternate community assistant list. “Being a CA was my primary focus, so I didn’t consider applying for theme houses,” she said, agreeing with Putney’s statements.
Many first-year students also got selected to become student leaders for campus engagement. “This year was the most competitive application year in the last eight years,” said Maverick Cummings, the director of campus activities and residential engagement. There were 141 applicants for community assistant, first-year mentor and orientation leader positions. Out of 63 first-year applicants, 24 students were selected to become student leaders.
Single and double room draws will take place at the end of this semester. “No prior application is required for double and single rooms, so we don’t know the number of applicants until the room draws happen,” Olney said. However, she points out the growing interest in living in single rooms; “I know that last year was the first year that we actually gave away all the singles in the singles draw.”
Due to the seniority-based lottery system in housing draws, rising juniors’ and seniors’ housing preferences determine the housing availability for rising sophomores. While rising juniors and seniors mostly choose to live in Kirk Douglas Hall and townhouses, Dean Eaton becomes a hub for sophomores. “Even though the Dean Eaton building is older, there is the benefit of living with many of your classmates, and it is centrally located,” Olney explains. Dean Eaton also has more social functions and a higher number of triple and double rooms than Sykes Hall.
The Residence Life team converted a lot of lounges to rooms when housing was tight previously. Currently, they have been working on reversing the rooms back to lounges, Olney says. A community assistant at Dean Eaton, Elena Cortina Pino ’26, also expressed her happiness about the renovations of student lounges and adjustments to roofs to prevent water from dripping into rooms.
Olney warned first-year students to be mindful that “the odds are that their sophomore-year room might be smaller than their freshman-year room.” First-year dorms are standardized in size and shape, unlike Dean Eaton and Sykes, which are two of our oldest residence dorms on campus. She also reminded students to bring their cards while going to single and double-room draws on April 22-23.