Bridgewater Va.- On Wednesday, Feb. 5, many students on campus received an email announcing the start of the 2020-2021 housing process and explaining major changes to several residence halls next year. 

The primary factor behind the changes is the need for renovations to Wakeman Hall. Wakeman, a co-ed first-year residence hall, has had issues with leaky plumbing, prompting complaints from many students. 

Although Bridgewater College usually tries to complete renovations over the summer, this project, which will include ripping out and replacing the existing plumbing, re-doing lobbies and bathrooms and installing water bottle refilling stations, will likely not be completed until sometime during the Fall 2020 semester. 

The main challenge of this renovation is finding housing for next year’s class of first-years. 

Daleville Hall is currently an all-female, primarily upperclassmen residence hall. Since it has 101 beds, which is the same occupancy as Wakeman, it was determined to be the easiest replacement. As a result, Daleville will be converted to a co-ed first-year residence hall next year. 

The other major housing change on campus is to the Stone Village apartments. Previously, Stone Village featured both 4 and 6-person apartments. Starting next semester, all apartments will house 6 people. 

According to Assistant Director of Residence Life Ricky Reiss, this is a result both of the need to increase housing options for upperclassmen and also of the high student interest in Stone Village. The new arrangement allows more students to experience living in Stone Village each year. 

“The students really enjoy Stone Village and want that opportunity, so let’s see if we can get more of it. That might be where we build a new building at some point in time to increase that occupancy as well,” Reiss said.

Although there is some concern among students that the 4-person apartments are not large enough to house 6 students, Reiss stated that measurements of both types of apartments revealed that 4-person apartments are actually the same size as 6-person apartments. 

To accommodate more students living in Stone Village, additional washers and dryers will be installed in Strickler Apartments.

This year’s housing selection process will be the same as in previous years. The housing application opened Feb. 10 and will stay open until March 2, which is also when reservation deposits are due. Phase 2, picking a roommate, will be open March 11-27. Students will receive their timeslot on April 2, and room selection will take place April 6-8.