Looking to increase the percentage of undergraduate students living on campus, the University is considering constructing new residence halls as soon as resources permit, said Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president.
Roughly 80 percent of undergraduates currently live on campus, according to the July status update to the Plan for Academic Enrichment, President Ruth Simmons' detailed program for improving the University. In November 2007, the University formally adopted a goal to increase this figure to 90 percent, and has since undertaken "substantial planning for new residence halls," according to the update.
Having a large number of students living off campus is a detriment to the campus community, said Margaret Klawunn, vice president for campus life and student services. "At a time when younger students would benefit from talking to older seniors, they are moving away and are less involved," she said.
Complaints from neighborhood residents and concerns about student safety have also prompted the discussion, she said.
Though a new dorm has been on the University's wish list since 2007, planning for new residence halls went on the back burner following last year's financial crisis.
Spies said administrators will wait until higher-priority projects like the new Creative Arts Center are funded and completed before addressing housing needs.
The University is looking to add about 300 to 400 new beds, but will most likely need to wait three to five years before the housing plan, drafted in 2007, moves forward, Klawunn said.
Currently, 20 percent of juniors and 80 percent of seniors live off campus, she said.
A master plan
The proposed housing additions are only a small part of the Plan for Academic Enrichment.
The report included the new and expanded goals adopted during last year's extensive review of the Plan, including continuing to strengthen undergraduate education, ensuring that Brown continues to be a "global" university and increasing the level and quality of support for key academic departments and programs.
The Plan for Academic Enrichment — conceived when President Ruth Simmons first took office in 2001 and officially endorsed by the Corporation in 2004 — has served as the backbone of her ambitious agenda, setting goals and enumerating milestones, large and small, for a wide range of specific projects.
The underpinning of the Plan's construction goals is the Strategic Framework for Physical Planning, a 2003 report that set principles for the University's growth — both on and off College Hill — over the next half-century, Spies said.
According to that report, it is possible to "increase the density of residential use close to the campus by constructing additional wings to the structures in Wriston Quad and (the) Graduate Center." That report proposed adding 180 rooms to Wriston and 275 rooms to Grad Center.
But during the recent round of planning, begun in 2007, administrators instead eyed constructing two new residence halls to accommodate apartment- or suite-style living, Klawunn said.
Due to "concern" about "overbuilding" on College Hill, the University will also keep a careful eye on property in Providence's Jewelry District, where it already owns several properties, Spies said. Administrators met this summer with architect Frances Halsband, who spearheaded the 2003 master plan, to discuss further expansion downtown near a planned medical education building, Klawunn said. The University will release a report sometime this fall with the results of Halsband's summer evaluation, she said.
"Most people agree that the value of (living) on campus is being physically on campus," Spies said of the possibility that graduate or undergraduate students could live in the Jewelry District. "But we will let the arguments happen. That's the kind of planning that needs to take place."
As the University looks ahead to future development and expansion, the Plan will continue to serve as a comprehensive guide, Spies said. The 52-page July status update details specific actions the University has taken so far and lays out goals that remain to be realized. It emphasizes efforts to increase the size and support of the faculty, grow the medical school, increase research funding and opportunities for students and strengthen the academic curriculum. In 2007, an effort to internationalize the University was added to the plan's central goals.
"It's a way to be accountable to the community," Spies said of the report. "The basic goal of the (Plan) is to raise the quality of academic work by attracting the best people and providing the resources those people need to do the best work."
Since the last update, the financial climate has forced the University to reassess large-scale capital projects and resource-intensive projects. Whereas in the past updates to the plan were released twice a year, such reports will now be released once annually in the fall.
