Trustees Say No to Expansion—for Now

A March board meeting resulted in a halt to recent proposals to expand the student body and build a large residential hall atop Observatory Hill that threatened to upset the solitude and historic nature of College Park.

In an email sent to students, faculty, administrators and alumni, trustee chair Laurel Richie ’81 explained the decision to retain the current size of the undergraduate student body, which stands at about 4,300 as of March.

She thanked members of a task force for their “rigorous examination” of how an increase of 10 to 25 percent in undergrads (up to 1,100 students) would affect academic programs, student services and the College’s physical plant.

Meanwhile, the proposed new dormitory in College Park has been shelved. “We have now determined the cost of building 750 beds is simply beyond our financial capacity,” said President Phil Hanlon ’77, who announced the news at a faculty meeting. “That project is off. We just can’t afford it.”

Opponents of the large dorm, who shared their concerns in the last issue of DAM, expressed relief. “I have no doubt that architects will be able to find many appropriate solutions to our building needs that don’t require the destruction of historic landscapes,” says Marlene Heck, senior lecturer of architectural history.

But College Park isn’t necessarily out of the woods, so to speak. Trustees have reportedly asked for smaller-scale plans for a residence hall that could be built near or on the same site.

In other news, the trustees approved a 3.9-percent increase in tuition, room and board for the 2018-19 academic year, elevating the cost of tuition to $53,496. The board signed off on a $l-billion budget for fiscal 2019 and allocated funds for renovations of Dana Hall and Blunt Alumni Center.