How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
Beginning next fall, the 26th Street and University Court residence halls will house students of the NYU School of Medicine exclusively, removing 6.5 percent of beds from the undergraduate housing system.
According to an e-mail released to the university yesterday, vacancies in other undergraduate residence halls will be able to accommodate these students.
Tom Ellett, associate vice president for student affairs, said of all undergraduate residence halls, 26th Street and University Court were the least popular.
"They were outlier buildings, a fair distance away from Washington Square, and in the past we've had a number of empty beds due to the economy," said Marc Wais, vice president for student affairs. "It will allow us to be more efficient and hopefully minimize the number of empty beds on campus."
If students submit a housing deposit by the Feb. 24 deadline, the university will guarantee housing for the 2010 fall semester, Ellett said. The university's four-year undergraduate housing guarantee will be honored.
With 725 fewer beds, not all students will be able to choose a room number after completing the lottery. The university will send room assignments to those who did not originally receive them over the summer, the letter said.
"At the end of the day, when it's your turn to pick, there may not be anything to pick," Ellett said. "But you're still guaranteed housing."
Housing for waitlist and graduate students will become more competitive.
The number of vacancies in the housing system depends on the number of students that choose to study abroad, transfer and move off campus.
"We cannot predict the future," Ellett said. "Right now, I don't know. Lottery is just a game."
According to Wais, the Student Senate Council, Inter-Residence Hall Council and medical school representatives were presented with the idea last week.
But Whitney Petrie, president of the Student Senators Council, said the student body was excluded from the process.
"They were coming to us as a courtesy to us as an advancement of information," she said. "It wasn't a 'what do you think.' It was a 'this has been done' [and] we're notifying you now."
Uma Krishnan, IRHC president, agreed.
"It saddens me that for an institution that prides itself on trying to incorporate student feedback, a decision was made that affects several hundred students in housing without gaining more input," she said.
