Learnings & Changes

What we learned during the first two years of neighborhoods. We have learned a great deal over the first two years of implementation of our shared vision for housing, and we remain committed to a process of ongoing feedback and iterative improvements. Data from the first two years of housing assignments reveal some areas of progress, including more fully meeting demand for all-frosh housing, increasing the opportunities for sophomores able to live with residents from their frosh dorm (an indicator of continuity of community), and significantly improving junior and senior access to Row houses.  

Concerns & Ideas for Improvements

During this same period, students expressed various concerns and ideas for improvements.  In response to student feedback after year one, we limited the size of all-frosh residences to foster greater community coherence, allowed flexibility in EVGR-A and Mirrielees apartment assignments to afford students more choice, and redistributed a small number of Row houses to create better equity across neighborhoods. More recently, students have expressed the desire for additional flexibility in housing choices (particularly in order to live with friends from outside their assigned neighborhood, which we have accommodated through a one-year pilot of rank-choice neighborhood reassignment without penalty for academic year 2023-2024), more robust neighborhood-level programming (for which we continue to provide additional funding and support), and better geographical proximity of residences within each neighborhood.