With construction on the new Sophia Gordon Hall dormitory on-schedule to be completed for the start of the 2006-2007 academic year, the Office of Residential Life and Learning (ORLL) has released information on the process for selecting residents.
"This is an exciting time for our upperclass students, and [Sophia Gordon] will provide more housing and more on campus options [for] apartments on campus," ORLL Director Yolanda King said.
The new dormitory will make available 124 additional on-campus beds, intended mainly for students in the roughly 1,200-member Class of 2007.
The dormitory will only contain single-occupancy rooms, grouped into 24 four-person and four six-person suites. It will also include a multipurpose lounge/theatre space, a second-floor mezzanine lounge, enclosed study lounges and storage for bicycles. Its two buildings, which face each other, will be connected by a partially-underground breezeway.
Students may apply for Sophia Gordon's 24 four-person suites in single-gender or in co-ed groups, and applications are due Feb. 13. At that point, students' lottery numbers will be averaged, and their eligibility for a suite determined. Selected groups may then select their suites according to their lottery averages.
Students may also apply as individuals for the one all-female, one all-male and two co-ed six-person suites. Those rooms will be selected during the seniors' night of the general housing lottery.
It remains uncertain exactly what effect Sophia Gordon will have on the housing situation for upperclassmen. Availability of on-campus apartments varies from semester to semester based on the size of each class, housing prices, and student taste.
King said the ORLL housed 464 seniors - slightly less than half the class - in fall 2005. Of juniors, 196 - roughly 15 percent-lived on-campus, a low number that is partially attributable to the large percentage of juniors currently abroad.
"I know Sophia will attract additional seniors to apply for on-campus housing," King said. "The numbers may increase as a result of more singles being available."
Seniors interested in on-campus housing and not selected for Sophia Gordon Hall may also opt for other apartment-style housing in the Latin Way and Hillsides dormitories, as well as special-interest housing and rooms in the other dormitories on-campus.
According to a Feb. 8 news release, Tufts received a grant from Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to make Sophia Gordon Hall a "green" certified building, meaning that passive and active energy systems will reduce the building's needs for traditional energy resources.
Residents of the building will be able to monitor the energy systems and consumption on a series of meters in the lobby area.
