Boston University students are voicing concerns about securing on-campus housing for the upcoming academic year as Fenway Campus rooms are being reserved for incoming freshmen.
BU Housing Director Steve Prue notified Fenway Campus residents in a Feb. 3 email that they would not be able to reselect their current rooms for the upcoming year in order to prioritize freshmen housing.
Prue wrote that “displaced” Fenway residents will be given the earliest appointment time of their class year during community room selection, and BU Housing will provide any necessary assistance.
The policy comes in the wake of the ongoing Warren Towers renovations, which began in January, and are expected to be completed by 2028. Housing availability is impacted by the renovations, prompting a reshuffling of students.
BU Spokesperson Colin Riley wrote in an email to The Daily Free Press that only undergraduates will be housed in Fenway Campus during the renovation process. Graduate students living in Peabody Hall were notified Jan. 23 they must move out of the Fenway Campus residence July 15 to accommodate undergraduate students.
The towers will be renovated one by one, starting with A Tower. A Tower residents also received an email Feb. 3 saying they would be unable to reselect their current rooms for the upcoming year.
Riley wrote BU offers more than 140 on-campus student residences, providing students with a variety of housing options and locations.
Despite the availability of other housing options, students are struggling with losing their current rooms for next year.
Sophomore Goretti Esquivel said she is “hoping for the best” after learning she cannot return to her A Tower dorm.
“Honestly, [I’m] just more confused than anything,” Esquivel said. “I had been told beforehand that we were promised the rooms if we wanted them again.”
Esquivel and her roommate, sophomore Ashley West, had planned to stay in their current dorm for the next school year, before receiving an email that their tower would be unavailable for housing selection.
“I really enjoy living in this room, but it was taken away from me,” West said. “It was sudden, so I was a bit shocked and disappointed.”
West said the notifications “could be handled a little bit better.”
“A little bit more compassion could also go out to the people still living in Tower A and also being put into a state of uncertainty,” West said.
West also said she is worried students will be placed in “inconvenient” housing like hotels, as students were housed in the Hyatt Regency Hotel during the fall 2024 semester and Hotel Commonwealth during the spring 2024 semester.
Sophomore Bridget Gieselman, who currently lives in Riverway House on the Fenway Campus, said the email worried her.
“The email wasn’t super clear,” Gieselman said. “I don’t really know what to expect.”
Gieselman said she hopes BU Housing sticks to its promise to prioritize displaced Fenway residents during community room selection, given her experience choosing housing last year.
“I was really shocked at how much the housing had already been grabbed up,” Gieselman said. “That aspect [is] what I’m most worried about. I have to wait so long to figure out what is available.”
West said she is “skeptical” about reentering the housing selection process, and believes students facing similar housing disruptions to those on Fenway Campus should be given priority. Prue’s email to A Tower residents did not promise the earliest available selection time to displaced residents.
“Because they’re doing this, they should have given us a little bit more priority when it comes to selecting rooms,” West said. “The people in Tower A should have a certain advantage because it cancels out a lot of options for us, especially people who did want to do same room selection.”
Despite the uncertainty, Gieselman plans to stay on campus for the next academic year, as off-campus housing is not a viable option for her.
“Boston housing is just so crazy,”Gieselman said. “If it was an easier process, I totally would maybe do an off-campus apartment.”
