To speed up the process of renovating the University's residential colleges, Yale will erect a new building where undergraduates can be temporarily relocated while their particular college is undergoing repairs.
The plan to create this temporary alternative housing, or "swing space," was approved by the Yale Corporation at its last meeting and announced in a letter to undergraduates on Dec. 9 by Yale College Dean Richard H. Brodhead.
Noting that Yale has committed itself to an ambitious program of renovation in which the residential colleges will be "made splendidly functional for the foreseeable future," Dean Brodhead said, "As we have stepped up to this massive project, the advantages of being able to do the work continuously have become very clear."
Until now, renovations to the residential colleges have been undertaken primarily in the summer, while the students are away. Under this new plan, the students in a residential college that is undergoing renovations would be moved into the swing space for a year -- thereby opening up a 15-month window, two summers and two academic terms, in which the work can be completed. This will also allow the University to save millions of dollars in added costs due to starting and stopping each project, said Dean Brodhead.
The new housing unit will be located on the back half of the parking lot on Tower Parkway, across from Morse College. This location will give undergraduates easy access to Sterling Memorial Library, Payne Whitney Gymnasium, University Commons -- where the students will dine -- and the rest of central campus.
While the swing space "cannot possess all the amenities and architectural charm of the colleges," it will have "certain features that will help to compensate for the temporary loss of college amenities," said the Dean. The building will be air-conditioned and wired for high-speed computer network access and cable television, and the rooms will be arranged in suites, with their own bathroom and kitchenette. The availability of the kitchenette will give the students living there the option of choosing a full meal plan or a partial plan at reduced cost. Student input is being sought regarding other particulars of the building's design, he added.
"No economically feasible solution to the problem of swing space can include all the facilities that the colleges provide," said Dean Brodhead. "But we trust that students will find the swing space an acceptable alternative while their college home is being recreated: a benefit that should make a brief inconvenience seem well worthwhile."
President Richard C. Levin noted that the new building would allow all the students of a college undergoing renovation to be united, which he said was a major concern expressed by undergraduates. He also said that the new structure's air conditioning would make it useful for summer programs at Yale. The University investigated, but rejected, the alternatives of housing students temporarily off-campus in existing apartment buildings or hotels.
"None of them were as satisfactory as the alternative we have come to, which is to construct a new dormitory," the President said, adding that the ambitious renovation plans for the residential colleges would "make them better than they ever were" by, among other changes, reconfiguring suites and reclaiming substantial basement space.
The new housing is expected to be ready for occupancy by the end of summer in 1998. Students in Berkeley College will be the first to occupy the new swing space, with the Berkeley repairs due to begin in the spring of 1998 and to be completed in the summer of 1999. The renovations process will then continue with Branford, Saybrook and Timothy Dwight colleges, in that order.