Tufts Residential Life notified first-years of impending changes to housing assignments for several dorm buildings for the next academic year. Hill Hall will be converted from freshman to sophomore housing while Wren Hall, containing 10-person suites, will house the incoming Class of 2029.
Hill Hall will not be converted to suite-style dorms. Additionally, while Haskell Hall will remain second-year housing, the dorm will accommodate only singles, doubles and triples, eliminating the 10-person group suite selections previously offered.
Perry Doherty, associate director of residential operations, wrote that the changes “will allow Residential Life to offer the same number of first-year and sophomore beds as we have in the past,” in a statement to the Daily.
Despite students no longer being able to form 10-person groups, the suite-style layout of Wren Hall and Haskell Hall will remain the same, director of residential life, Christina Alch, wrote in a statement to the Daily.
“While there are doors and stairwells that separate sections of the hallway, Wren and Haskell do not have private common areas and bathrooms,” Alch wrote. “These spaces are accessible to anyone who lives in the building.”
According to Doherty, there is no planned construction on the buildings before the fall semester and current room occupancy will remain the same.
The change anticipates the opening of Blakeley Hall — remodeled after previously housing graduate students in The Fletcher School — to second-year undergraduates this fall, Doherty wrote. She added that beds are routinely reshuffled across campus to accommodate fluctuating class sizes.
With planned completion in August, Blakeley Hall’s renovations will create 120 new beds in single and double rooms for the future sophomore class.
“The floor plan has been fully reconfigured. The new layout is a “double-loaded corridor,” which is more typical of undergraduate housing. The building will be fully accessible, including a new elevator, accessible bathrooms, and accessible bedrooms,” the Capital Projects Division wrote in a statement to the Daily.
Hill Hall’s conversion from first-year to sophomore housing leaves open the possibility of future sophomores living in Hill Hall for two years in a row.
“I’ve had a very interesting experience living in Hill Hall in my freshman year. We’ve faced a lot of obstacles while we’ve lived there,” Aanya Lodha, a current first-year undergraduate and resident of Hill Hall, said. According to Lodha, a recent burst pipe sent water flooding into the building’s second floor, requiring residents to temporarily evacuate the building.
Following the announcement of the new Boston Avenue housing development, Lodha said she received an email from the university notifying Hill Hall residents of expected construction noises.
“These are things quite unique to the Hill Hall experience,” Lodha said. “If I were to be assigned this housing for my sophomore year, I’d be pretty disappointed.”
The location of Hill Hall, built in 1968, presents another reason students view this residence hall as less desirable to live in.
“I wouldn’t say Hill is a bad dorm, but I would be a little disappointed if I lived in Hill and I have to live in Hill again during my sophomore year,” Nishesh Nath, another first-year student and resident of Hill Hall, said. “It’s just far away from everything on campus. There’s obviously better options.”
“I think Hill Hall has a pretty bad reputation among [first-years]. … We have to be living in what was previously known as pretty bad [first-year] housing,” Lodha said. “Everyone’s pretty scared and disappointed about it.”
