FIRST-YEAR housing will see big changes over the next decade. Construction should start within a few weeks on Observatory Hill Residence Hall, the newest addition to the Alderman Road residences. Poised above Balz next to the water treatment plant, the new building begins a series of projects destined to make the "new dorms" into "brand new dorms" as all current houses but Cauthen and Woody are removed and rebuilt. What is the future of the Alderman area? The double-loaded corridor.
For those not savvy with architectural jargon, the double-loaded corridor is what most University students know as hall-style. As the project progresses over the next dozen or so years, the suite-style relics of the sixties will be phased out in favor of the more traditional dormitory design. Considering the added novelty the suites brought to first-year life, this change detracts from the experience.
The most common myth around Grounds concerning the issue guesses that the change stems from a difference in heating costs between suites and halls. Though the Alderman dorms have become expensive to upgrade, as is natural for older buildings, Director of Residence Life Angela Davis confirms that heating cost did not motivate the change. The primary reasons for the switch rest on the belief that hall-style housing promotes more interaction and provides a more social environment. This is a shaky premise.
While hall-style dorms still have lounge areas, a room off the side of your hall will never equal the room connecting your doors. The common room of a suite constitutes the nexus of the living area for the individuals in the suite and promotes suite interaction. The biggest drawback of a suite is that suites are relatively small and access to other suites is limited, which fragments students into smaller groups than hall dorms.
It is surprising that the University entirely abandoned the idea of suite housing with its newest project rather than reconciling the suite and hall concepts. A simple compromise would be to put four suites on a floor with a hall connecting them, only requiring card swipes to get into the whole building as in current hall-style buildings. This would encourage both suite and floor unity. Instead, the University plans to erase a housing option that made first-year life at Virginia unique.
The fact remains that some incoming students still choose suites over halls. Other students are encouraged to live in suites during their first year -- Echols and Rodman students are not only grouped in suites but one can hear from older students that the experience is rewarding and one of their favorites at the University. These students disprove the theory that the double-loaded corridor will bring increased socialization. Though some students will inevitably regret their decision -- whether to live on a hall or in a suite -- many students enjoy suite life during their first year.
The University is giving in to the temptation to make student housing more traditional at the expense of the distinctive subculture that suite housing produced. The dichotomy between the two styles always provides a topic of discussion for first-year students. Some dislike their assignment and some love where they live. If all of Alderman is transformed into hall-style buildings, there will be nothing distinctive about Alderman dorms but their distance and age.
The choice itself is not negligible. Offering different options appears attractive to prospective students because it gives them a choice of where to live. Offering them a choice between nothing but newer buildings farther away and older buildings closer to central grounds turns an interesting decision into a weighing of one's willingness to walk. Sometimes the simple things that a college offers really set it apart, and the option of suite-style living in the first-year is one of the many simple things that make this campus a Grounds.
Discarding suite housing is a poorly considered plan. The notion that hall-style dorms are somehow more social or that the layout of such dorms promotes more interaction is questionable. Moreover, insofar as this hypothesis holds merit, the most logical solution would reconcile the best of both styles, not entirely discard an aspect of first-year life. Whatever the reasons for the change, many students enjoy and promote suite housing, and many prospective students undoubtedly find simply being presented with a choice attractive. As the end of suite housing approaches, I can only be grateful that I had the opportunity and hope that diversity in housing options resurfaces in the future.
Jason Shore is a Cavalier Daily Viewpoint Writer. He is a first-year student in the College of Arts and Sciences.
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