A "planned initiative" for the construction of a new dorm, set in motion this time last year, seems to have disappeared from the administration's immediate agenda.
Some student leaders familiar with the issue say the plan for a new dorm was set aside due to the potential cost of building a new aquatics facility to replace the Smith Swim Center, saying University officials told a group of students earlier this month that the project would not begin in the next few years.
Yet President Ruth Simmons' call last week for a reassessment of the Plan for Academic Enrichment could change University priorities and suggests that a new dorm is not necessarily on the backburner, said a student who has met with administrators about the matter.
Plans for a new swim center and plans for a new dorm have not been specifically framed as mutually exclusive. But the expense of a new swim center - necessary after the Smith Swim Center was deemed irretrievably damaged last semester - has effectively taken new housing off the administration's immediate agenda, according to Kevin McDonald '08, who serves on the Campus Planning Advisory Board.
"Planning has completely stopped," McDonald said. "They haven't thrown away the plans, but when the Smith Swim Center closed, the administration devoted all its planning and investigation resources to solve that immediate problem."
McDonald said he was never explicitly told that plans for the new dorm had been tabled, but he said this was clear from interactions with administrators and "from what the communications have been."
Since the closure of the Smith Swim Center, the University has sought an adequate and affordable facility for the University's swimming, diving and water polo teams. In May, the Corporation approved the construction of a temporary pool to open in January, costing between $3.7 million and $4.2 million. Members also approved the construction of a permanent pool that will cost between $32 million and $34 million.
Interim Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services Russell Carey '91 MA'06 told The Herald last week that the new swim center was not a "one-for-one tradeoff" for a new dorm and that construction of a new facility does not mean the new dorm will automatically be pushed aside. He and another University official said concrete plans have not been made for either the construction or postponement of a new dorm.
"No decisions have been made at this point, and there is still a lot of concern about housing," Carey said. He added in an e-mail to The Herald that the University's capital plan "is constantly under review and priorities are adjusted as needed based on the University's highest needs and available resources."
Elizabeth Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration, told The Herald last week, "No decisions have been made on how to accommodate the swim center in the University's budget." Huidekoper said the Corporation will resolve this issue at its meeting this weekend.
Still, student leaders said it became clear early in discussions last spring that the University would postpone the new dorm project to make room for the swim center in its budget, even though the project had received a great deal of support from the Corporation, which "wanted the timeline sped up" and formed an ad hoc committee to examine the issue.
Though plans for a new dorm had not been finalized, the Corporation gave approval at its October 2006 meeting for administrators to begin planning a new undergraduate housing facility. Carey told The Herald last October that building new housing had "definitely emerged as a higher priority."
Carey told The Herald last week that there had been "early discussions" about a new dorm but that "no proposals have gone forward to take it to the next level."
But according to minutes from the October 2006 Corporation meeting, campus life officials had identified and evaluated several building sites for a new dorm, developed a financial model for the project and solicited student opinion.
Now the project has stopped moving forward, as Carey told students in September that the construction of a new dorm would not happen in the next few years as planned, one of the student leaders said.
But Simmons' call at last week's faculty meeting for a reassessment of the Plan for Academic Enrichment could put the dorm back on the table as Brown's priorities and capital projects are re-evaluated. One student present in meetings where the re-evaluation was discussed, said several University projects have effectively been put on hold until February, when the new priorities will be established.
New housing captured greater attention last year as part of an effort to increase the number of students living on campus from 80 percent to 90 percent, Carey said. As more seniors choose to live in dorms, an increasing number of juniors are choosing to live off campus, he said, adding that it is "discouraging that we don't have enough housing to have both juniors and seniors on campus."
