Encouraging upperclassmen to take rooms at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Cambridge and reap the benefits of hotel living while freeing up space for first-year students is a smart move on Boston University’s part. However, it needs to make sure it can entice enough students to live across the river so some freshmen, though fewer in number, do not end up living in the Hyatt with upperclassmen, in what would be a daunting social scene for the first-year students.
As Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore wrote in an email to current students, freshmen and transfer students need stability during their first year on campus. The first year needs to actually play out on campus, in residences where students can easily make new friends, establish roots for a full academic year and even just hang photographs and posters on their walls; the Hyatt does not permit students to hang items on the wall with tape or sticky tack.
Housing shortages are nothing new. Since 2002, BU has housed students in local hotels, and around 600 students spent last fall in university-rented hotel rooms. Elmore showed a forward-thinking concern for freshmen by acknowledging the anticipated problem before housing selection and offering students a deal before the Housing Office faces a hardly surprising situation.
Students in the Hyatt can see the benefits of twice-weekly housekeeping, room service, air conditioning and private bathrooms, with a view from Cambridge. For students with unfavorable housing numbers, plans to go abroad next spring semester or simply a love for regular linen services, the Hyatt is a good alternative to housing in less-popular, freshmen-filled dormitories. Options for spring-semester moves into apartment residences and coveted locations are also compelling reasons to room in the Hyatt for the fall semester.
The housing rates for students who value a private bathroom are also enticing. The accommodations at the Hyatt and Shelton Hall are similar: multiple-occupancy rooms with private bathrooms. The cost for Hyatt housing is the lowest available to students — $7,100 for the 2007-08 academic year — while a spot in Shelton costs $1,000 more.
Housing officials must be aware the Hyatt-election plan runs a risk of failure. A situation could result in which fewer first-year students end up in hotels than in past years. These students, surrounded by upperclassmen, would face even greater challenges adjusting to BU. This necessary plan’s success requires current students’ cooperation.