Photo by Genevieve Humphreys
In response to the large size of this first-year class, the Office of Residential Life opened up rooms outside of Bruce Thomas Hall and Dick and Peggy Prassel Hall, the usual Sophomore College halls.
Each year it is determined if any additional residence hall spaces will be needed to be accommodate each class year.
“Only [Camille Lightner Hall’s] first floor has been designated as Sophomore College for the upcoming year. The rest of the floors will remain part of the upper-division area,” wrote Lisa Chapa, housing assignment coordinator, over email.
Stephanie Ackerman, assistant director for Housing Operations for the Sophomore College, explained that the addition of the first floor of Lightner has kept the current waitlist of 35 first-years similar to past waitlists.
“There is a waitlist every year. The length of the current waitlist is historically consistent with its length in years prior,” Ackerman wrote over email. “The plan is the same each year: to house students on the waitlist as soon as possible.”
Opening Lightner is only a short-term fix for accommodating the class of 2022. According to Ackerman, however, their overflow won’t be an issue as they move into the upper class housing units.
“With the acquisition of City Vista, there is more upper-division space available than in the years prior to City Vista. Therefore, all first-year, sophomore and junior students will be housed with respect to the three-year residency requirement,” Ackerman wrote.
First-year Nerma Pasic is currently on the waitlist to be housed into a Sophomore College residence hall. She was informed that she will find out her housing sometime during the summer.
“I kind of feel like the process is just really unorganized, and I think that they just had too many people. I’m really not confident in their ability to find everybody a room because it’s [a lot of] people who don’t have a room. I really don’t see how that many people aren’t going to come back,” Pasic said.
Chapa said that Trinity has had even larger waitlists in the past, so this one is very manageable. The “summer melt” where students decide not to return to Trinity and housing cancellations will leave room for everyone, according to Ackerman.
“All rising sophomore students will be housed. We completely understand it can be frustrating for students to be unsure about their housing assignment, but we will have spaces to spare when all is said and done,” Ackerman wrote.
