Housing adds co-ed dorms to East Campus
By Chris Clarke/ Student Publications
Hopkins Residence Hall (above) is one of three dorms that will be changed to co-ed housing to accomodate more groups this fall.
Students began to apply for housing Feb.15, initiating the first step of a registration and preference process that has undergone a few significant changes for the upcoming fall semester. This year the minimum number of students required to apply for the group housing option will be five, and three traditional style dorms on East Campus will be co-ed for the first time.
“The [housing] process is designed to figure out how many people want to live [on campus] next year and allow them to be with their friends as much as possible,” said Dan Morrison, associate director of Housing for Residence Life. “Our goal is to honor roommate requests first and building preferences second. We tweak the process to find more opportunities for friends to live together.”
The changes being implemented this year will offer students more opportunities to live with friends. The group option, made with sophomores in mind, permits a maximum of 24 friends to live together in traditional-style housing. Starting this year, only five people are needed to make a group, as opposed to the six required previously.
“Groups were very popular last year,” Morrison said, “so we expanded on the option. The group process was created to slot people together in traditional housing, since it can be difficult for sophomores to get apartments. This way, they can still be with their friends. Housing can accommodate one-quarter to one-third of all sophomores through groups.”
Umehani Dala, a second-year Electrical Engineering major, said she liked the new policy. “Lowering the group requirements is a good thing because people might not have a group of six, and this would allow them to be with their friends,” she said.
Changes in housing availability and options have also taken effect. Traditional-style co-ed housing is being offered on East Campus for the first time in Tech history. Hanson and Hopkins Halls, originally male and female, respectively, will be co-ed. The new Honors dorm, Howell Hall, will also be co-ed for incoming freshmen selected to be Honors students.
“These changes are being made because groups have become popular, and they prefer to be in a co-ed environment. Last year, 85 percent of groups wanted co-ed dorms on West Campus, although more buildings on East are eligible for group housing. Hanson and Hopkins have traditionally not been filled with direct requests, so we chose [them to be] co-ed,” Morrison said.
“For all intents and purposes, [Howell Hall] will be just like a Freshman Experience hall. It will have peer leaders, a hall council, etc. The only differences will be academic—the students rooming there may take more of the same classes, and they might participate in academic enrichment activities together from time to time,” Morrison said.
“Co-ed dorms are a nice addition. People always complain about how they don’t have the opportunity to meet others [of the opposite gender]. It would help the guys meet more girls,” Dala said.
Few other changes have been made to housing. Morrison does not expect there to be many issues with students unable to obtain on-campus housing. “The estimated size of the incoming freshman class is slightly larger – around 2,600, which is 200 more than we predicted for last year. Since freshmen and sophomores are guaranteed housing, this will impact upperclassmen by reducing the number of spaces available to them by fifty to sixty beds.”
Last year, Hemphill Apartments became an undergraduate building, effectively adding 300 more spaces to undergraduate housing. “This change is still having a positive impact,” Morrison said. “It’s 300 spaces more than the growing size of the freshman and sophomore classes. We don’t expect there to be drastic increases in the number of displaced upperclassmen because of this previous addition.”
Online housing sign-up ends and prepayment is due on March 1. Sophomores who meet the deadline will be given a room selection number that will be sorted by class status and then by the number of credit hours earned at Tech. All other students will be entered into a random lottery that will give them either a room selection number or a wait-list number. Students will be able to designate roommate and building preferences for the fall semester online beginning March 9. More information can be found at www.housing.gatech.edu.
