Sudden adjustments to upperclassmen housing this summer have made some question why it happened without warning. Were Housing and Residential life able to plan for admissions changes?

At the end of last semester, Bwog published an article covering Columbia’s announcement that Wien Hall would, for the first time in recent memory, be home to first year students. As a Resident Adviser (RA) and someone quite familiar with housing at Columbia, I found this quite unusual. Apparently, so did my friend, a Wien RA, who actually discovered this news via Bwog. When discussing this with him, he added that even his boss, the Residential Hall Director (RHD) of Wien, found out from the Bwog article.

This was immediately strange to me, as being an RA for first years is not a decision that the individual or the Residential Life department makes lightly. It is a much different experience, as first year students tend to need more support, and there is an increased chance that you will have incidents to manage. On the flip side, it can be extremely rewarding compared to being an upperclassmen RA, as your residents likely want guidance and will come to your programs (which is not so much the case as they get older). Applying to become an RA takes this into consideration, and Residential Life makes careful placement decisions based on their assessment of the individual. 

Later into the summer, a friend of mine in the school of General Studies received an email stating that her housing placement in Nuss (600 W113th) was changing and she would have to move very soon. Housing did not tell her immediately where she would be moved to, only claiming that the new accommodation would be comparable in square footage. We were both surprised by this, as it was mid-July, and the school year would be starting soon.

When I moved back in for RA training, two weeks before the school year began, the other RAs and I learned that Wien would host almost exclusively freshmen. I was very shocked by this, as Wien is quite a large building! I am in the class of 2027, and my freshman year our only options were the classic four – John Jay, Wallach, Furnald, and Carman. The following class had a couple floors of Hartley, but their numbers weren’t significantly larger. So to need an entire additional building meant there was a highly unusual amount of freshmen enrolled. Higher ups in Residential Life also seemed surprised, and like they had to figure many logistics out over the summer. 

The average number of first year students enrolled in Columbia College and in Columbia Engineering, using admissions profiles for the past three years, is 1,485, with a standard deviation of 15 students. Such a low standard deviation is extremely impressive when you consider all the logistics that the Admissions department deals with. The Class of 2029 holds 1,806 first year students, making their class 321 students larger than the recent average. This gives a 20.5% increase in first-year enrollment. This number is significant when you consider Columbia’s size and selectivity. If JJ’s seems much more crowded than past years, you’re not crazy, there are just many more students. It is no wonder that the only option Housing had was to move upperclassmen from Wien and make it a first year building.

As I have started the school year and begun to investigate this situation, I talked to peers who had their housing placements moved. Two GS students I talked to who previously lived in Nuss were moved to apartments above 120th street. Both of them stated the new accommodations are similar in size or larger, and they are not upset about the new space itself, they were just confused having to move so soon. For reference, unlike CC and SEAS students, many GS students keep the same housing accommodations over the summer and into the following year, meaning they had to move fairly quickly. It seems like the bulk of students who moved from Wien ended up in Nuss, which makes sense, as Housing annexed four floors that used to hold exclusively GS and Grad students, hence why my friend was kicked out. Some students were also moved to Schapiro, various brownstones, Carlton, and Maranamay. Most people I talked to reported similar confusion, and in some cases that their new rooms are significantly smaller than the rooms they picked during the housing lottery. However, they appreciated that Housing provided AC units for each student who was moved. 

Wait… what is Maranamay? Well, this is actually a new residence hall that opened this year! This is great, as hypothetically it would allow Columbia to fit everyone in. But clearly they couldn’t, as so much had to be moved last minute. The reason for this is that Hartley Hall is closed until 2027 for renovations. Constructing and renovating a residence hall takes years of calculated planning and building, which is clear in the fact that Maranamay opened as Hartley went offline. This is what leads me to believe that certain departments at Columbia, such as Housing and Residential Life,  were not fully prepared for the amount of freshmen enrolled, as there was physically not space to put everyone. Maranamay’s opening shows how Housing’s decisions are usually calculated and precisely aligned with enrollment. It seems as though they were planning renovations with the expectation that enrollment would remain steady. 

This year however, Housing is at 98% occupancy, a number much higher than usual. As RAs, we have been told that Room Transfer Requests, a normal option for handling student conflict, will not be an option for this academic year. Students who have any sort of issue with their housing this year will be left with very few options, as there is physically not anywhere for them to move to. This is another reason why I am left wondering why over 300 more students were admitted than normal, when it seems like there was no easy way to house a much larger class.

I reached out to Housing, inquired about what I heard some call an “over-enrollment”. A representative first declined that there was an over-enrollment, and pointed me to a statement from President Shipman on August 29. In this memo, Shipman states “we made the considered decision to admit more students”. The reasons she provided were that they received many outstanding applications, and received positive responses to “initial offers of admission”. She continues by saying these admissions were made “alongside careful adjustments to the resources that support our students”. These include the number of faculty and advisers, classroom spaces, and dining options.

 Absent however, is the basic question of where they would house this many more students. If this was such a careful decision, why were so many students suddenly moved? There are other considerations that make me doubt this statement, including classroom pressures for core classes. Each University Writing section, usually a small class, increased the amount of students per instructor. Frontiers of Science, a staple for freshmen in CC, has always had one giant lecture hall each semester that holds half of the CC freshmen. This year, they have had to make two sections to fit everyone. 

The representative from housing also provided a statement from a University official claiming Housing was notified about the class size as the admissions cycle ended in June. Seeing how much more first-year housing was needed, they identified Wien as the best option for first-year students, which is understandable due to its location on campus. The official continued that new room assignments for around 140 students previously in Wien were “thoughtfully prioritized by class standing and original lottery number”.

I am not arguing that Columbia should not further expand access to its resources. I am merely explaining the seemingly abrupt circumstances, and asking why the decision to admit so many more students was made now. Using the same admissions profile data as above, from the Admissions website, I found the average number of students admitted in the past three years to be 2,288, with a standard deviation of only 30 students. This admissions cycle, Columbia offered admission to 2,946 students, or around 658 more students than average. The number seems significant, and makes me wonder what was different this year in the Admissions department. A sudden decision by them, for whatever reason, would explain why Housing was forced to break recent precedent and host first year students in Wien. They wouldn’t have other options. 

 At any school, but especially one as selective as Columbia, admissions departments specifically curate their classes to fit institutional needs. The low standard deviation demonstrates how admission and enrollment numbers are typically very similar between year to year. Looking at data from previous years demonstrates how our Admissions department is very precise in fitting institutional needs and enrolling a certain expected number of students. 

For this year, it appears that the institutional need to admit more students was a higher priority than figuring out where to put all of them. Was this decision as considered as Claire Shipman stated? Was Columbia in need of more tuition money? Did Admissions accept over 600 more students than usual thinking recent controversy would make them less likely to accept? Did our usually precise, Ivy League Admissions department make a mistake? Many of these admits were from the waitlist, meaning they would be highly likely to accept, so did they do this to increase Columbia’s yield rate to look better? Or do I need to take my tinfoil conspiracy hat off and not look as deep into this? 

Knowing Columbia’s recent record of transparency, and the fact that Admissions did not reply to my email, I think we may never know. 

Header via Bwog Archives