Creating a true residential community

Last Friday, Student Trustee Representative Jesse Levey made a presentation to the Board of Trustees about the housing crisis at Tufts University. As former and current student representatives to the Board of Trustees, we collectively decided not to comment publicly on this issue until we were given the opportunity to speak to the community directly. We write this Viewpoint to serve as part of a continued dialogue with the Tufts student body concerning the housing crisis. We believe that this dialogue must continue to ensure that the voices of all students on this campus are heard and that a consensus can be reached that is in the best interest of the entire community.

To say that the meeting last Friday went well would be an understatement. The trustees are clearly supportive of the idea of a new dorm. In fact, they were concerned that the process is taking so long. They recognized the overwhelming housing need on this campus and they agree with our desire to make Tufts a true residential community. In addition, they clearly instructed the administration to get to work on building a new dorm. They, like us, want to be involved in the process and they want it to move forward quickly.

We believe that this is a great victory for all students. Personally, we have been fighting for a new dorm for over two years. We now are finally in the stage where a new dorm is going to be built. However, we want to take this opportunity to engage the Tufts community on the issues that still remain unresolved.

The most prominent issue regarding building a new dorm concerns the exact number of students we need to house. The Dean of Students Office and the Residential Life Office both place the demand for on-campus housing at over 300 undergraduates. This number was calculated based on the number of students on the waiting list and an estimate of the number of students who would live on campus if they could. The question then is two-fold - can we build a 300-bed facility and will the need remain constant?

The Operations Office has assured us that we can accomplish this goal by either building two facilities or by building one 300-bed facility. Both options offer their own particular benefits. Naturally, building one 300-bed facility would be cheaper and building two 150-bed facilities would provide more flexibility. It is still too early to decide for sure which site should be built on, but the overall point is clear - we have the capability to solve the housing crisis.

The second question is more complex and requires a little background. In 1991, Tufts built South Hall, the largest dorm on campus. Shortly after the construction of South, the University had trouble filling the dorm. The economy was in a bit of a recession and students were looking more to live off campus because it became cheaper to live off campus than on campus. Some people are weary of building a larger facility now because of what happened in 1991. However, these concerns are unfounded for the following reasons:

First, Tufts has changed drastically in the last ten years. Tufts has reached great heights, and the caliber of students that we are attracting today is vastly different from those we were attracting ten years ago or even five years ago. This has resulted in an influx of students who are more serious about academics and students who are looking for more of a residential experience. Part of what lures quality students to Tufts is that we are not in an urban environment and that we are a small liberal arts school where building a community is possible. Students who come to Tufts want to live on campus for these reasons more than ever before.

Second, the housing market is not likely to decline any time soon. Boston has seen quite a revival in the last five years and the communities surrounding Tufts have felt this drastic change in the housing market. Davis Square is booming and the area surrounding Davis has become a popular place to live. Moreover, the end of rent control in Boston and Cambridge has sent people into the surrounding communities such as Medford and Somerville. These changes are all permanent and members of the Board of Trustees who have worked extensively in the real estate market have assured us that housing cost in this area are going to remain expensive. Furthermore, as Tufts has recruited a more financially needy community, the importance of affordable housing has drastically increased.

Thirdly, a flexible building could allow housing options for graduate students. We currently house merely 39 of the nearly 1,500 graduate students on this campus. Granted, many graduate students do not want to live on campus, but we deny housing to virtually all of them, including many who would prefer to live on the Tufts campus. There are many graduate students who seek to be part of a community and housing them on campus would be a first step towards this goal. In this sense, graduates students serve almost as a buffer in case any of our calculations are off.

We believe that these arguments further prove that we can build a 300-bed facility without compromising the feel of our campus and without running the risk of having empty beds. Furthermore, we have been assured by all parties involved that at no point will the administration admit larger classes to this institution. This is a big concern because in the past some new dorms were coupled with increases in enrollment. However, this will not be an issue with the new dorm.

Last week The Tufts Daily wrote an editorial urging the trustees to build a 150-bed facility rather that the 300-bed facility that we have outlined here. We believe that despite our disagreement with the Daily Editorial Board, we can and will get a 300-person dorm built on this campus in the very near future, because once given all of the information, there are few arguments against building such a dorm. In the future, the media should get all of the pertinent information before printing an editorial on the issue. Luckily, members of the Board of Trustees were able to judge the argument presented to them based on its merits, to be as excited as we are about the prospects of building a new dorm, and to look forward to continue to build the Tufts community through the building of this new facility.

Tommy Calvert is a junior majoring in international relations. He is a former student representative to the Administration and Finance Committee of the Board of Trustees.