Ella Kitchens, Asst. News Editor–
As of the fall semester of 2025, first-year students will live on East Quad in four residence halls: Crawford, East, Huffman, and Shepardson.
The current first-year halls, Shorney and Smith on West Quad, will be transformed into sophomore housing. These changes were voted on by the Board of Trustees, so the decision is final.
According to the Office of Student Life in the email they sent out to students other than seniors, this change designates a new space for first-years called First-Year Quad (FYQ) in order to provide community for these students.
“Denison is uniquely positioned as a four-year residential experience on a small, liberal arts campus,” the Office of Student Life said in a statement to The Denisonian.
“Through our living communities, we are focused on creating spaces where students can form deep relationships and build an expansive community.”
Formerly, all first-years lived on West Quad in Shorney, Smith, and Curtis. However, as the number of students increased, there was not enough room to house all first-years on West Quad.
Curtis then became a sophomore/junior dorm, and first-years were moved to Crawford on East Quad and Beta House on North Quad, in addition to Shorney and Smith.
“We tried that out for a little while,” DCGA President Noah Chartier said. “But we know that most schools have first- year quads. They tend to work pretty well. And… the university is doing something right now called their first-year reboot, where they’re reexamining the first-year experience on a high level, collecting a ton of data.”
The decision to create a first-year quad on East Quad was made in response to this data collected by the university that showed that first-year students felt isolated living on separate quads. According to the Office of Student Life, the university conducted student interviews and surveys and found that the addition of a first-year quad could improve the onboarding process for students.
“Ultimately from a high level perspective, it seemed like the data showed that that’s what first-years needed,” Chartier said.
While they relied on data gathered from students, the housing change did not go through any direct approval process from the student senate.
“I do wish that we’d been given more of a heads up, that they pitched the idea more openly, and took feedback,” Chartier said.
Since the release of the housing change, there has been widespread negativity from students about the decision. Students flooded the anonymous Denison page of the social media platform YikYak with posts against the housing change.
While Crawford and East are traditional style residence halls with communal bathrooms, Shepardson and Huffman have suites with shared bathrooms. Shorney and Smith currently do not have these suites.
While East Quad housing is being given to first-year students, West Quad traditional residence halls Shorney and Smith will be given to sophomores.
While these halls always housed first-year students in the past, Josh Kusch, senior director of Residential Communities and Housing, emphasizes that the experience of living in Shorney and Smith would be different for sophomores than it was their first year.
“This isn’t supposed to be freshman year 2.0 if you end up living there again,” Kusch said.
As part of this reconstruction, the university will be adding a gaming lounge and exercise equipment to Shorney and Smith, as well as the option for “cluster housing.” Cluster housing will allow students to select rooms in groups near each other.
In addition to these benefits in Shorney and Smith, Kusch says there are options beyond just one quad for students.
“There are a lot of places to live across campus for sophomores and juniors still, including South Quad, other buildings on West Quad and even on the North Loop and over on East Quad,” Kusch said. “And so I think if students would like to consider those spaces, there are plenty of opportunities to look at spaces across campus.”
“I think what we have inadvertently done at Denison is really center a student’s experience living in the halls based on the type of room that someone’s living in,” Kusch said. “And I think we have an opportunity here to reframe how we think about that experience. And I think in residence life, we have an opportunity to shape that conversation differently and really talk about the experiences that we’re able to create and facilitate for students.”
The Office of Student Life has said that they are committed to keeping an open dialogue with students. In the email to students, they included a form for student suggestions. Kusch also hopes to encourage student dialogue.
“We make strategic decisions and that has positive impacts, but then that also means that we’re in a season of change where we have to adjust expectations and help folks reimagine what their experience might look like,” Kusch said, “And so I feel like we’re in this season where it’s gonna take us as a community reimagining and rethinking about what life on campus is going to look like and what that progression, what that flow will be. And I’m always happy to help sit down with students and hear them process and hear how what we’re doing is impacting their experience.”
Like the administration, DCGA wants to hear student feedback.
Antonio Baldovinos, DCGA Vice President and Chair of the Residential Life Committee, advocates for student concerns with residential life. Additionally, as a RED Corps consultant, he gives insight to the university about ways to better support students as they transition to the first-year quad next year.
“When it comes to big changes like this, it’s going to hurt initially,” Baldovinos said. “So the people right now are going to be impacted. And so that’s where my job is: how can we best help them navigate that big change?”
“If students want things advocated for, that’s our job,” Chartier added. “And so we are there to support students if they bring things to us. If there are things that are actionable… Please send them our way… We would love to advocate on students’ behalf, particularly alongside students. We would love to provide backup and support.”