Dartmouth College is offering up to $1 million to encourage students to live off-campus when in-person classes recommence this fall. The Ivy League school is offering students the cash to ease its on-campus housing crunch amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an email sent to students included on the housing waitlist, Dartmouth Associate Dean of Residential Life, Mike Wooten, explained that a one-time lottery will be conducted to give away $5,000 to as many as 200 returning students who choose to live off-campus. Those who are not chosen will remain on the waiting list.
The school is currently expanding its dormitories to accommodate more students by converting lounges to rooms. However, Wooten believes that the expansion will still not be enough to ease the on-campus housing crunch this September.
“As expected, demand has exceeded our capacity. Although this has been the case in prior years, interest in living on campus has understandably surged following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions,” he wrote.
Students are being given until Monday to decide if they want to have their names included in the lottery. School administrators will release the results of the lottery on Wednesday.
On-Campus Housing Demand
Dartmouth Spokesperson Diana Lawrence recognizes there is growing demand for on-campus housing this fall as students clamor to return to universities after, in most cases, a year of remote learning.
“The demand for on-campus housing this fall is being felt at many institutions across the country,” she said, citing the University of Tampa, which is offering students deferred enrollment for a year in exchange for a $3,500 scholarship.
The College of Idaho has also teamed up with a Caldwell-based company to build affordable housing units out of decommissioned shipping containers. The new dorms will consist of two three-story structures that will house 27 students each.
“It’s not going to look like a container on the outside. It’s going to blend in with the surrounding construction. When this is done, it’s going to mix in rooflines, sidings, colors, and everything your modern construction has today,” Design Project Manager Chad Hart explained.