Similarly to last year’s campus-wide housing crunch that left ResLife searching to accommodate a flux of students left without on-campus housing, currently 78 freshmen find themselves living in three-person rooms in the Butterfield dorms. This year there are 26 triples, an increase from last year when 22 triples housed 66 students.

When the class of 2011 first received their housing information on July 6th, 37 triples had been randomly assigned. One hundred and eleven students received an email from ResLife informing them, “Since we assign all our incoming students housing early in the summer, it is typical that we need to assign some students to temporary triples.”

The email also explained the potential benefits of living in a triple. Each student is credited $50 a week and will also be entitled to point adjustments in General Room Selection for the following year. Therefore, all of the freshmen that were originally assigned to triples will receive more points, giving them first preference in the housing lottery for their sophomore year.

By the first day of Orientation, nine rooms had been de-tripled. This past week, six more students moved to different dorms, leaving the count at 26 triples. As more spaces become available in the next few weeks, even more students will face the possibility of moving out of their triple.

Director of Residential Life Fran Koerting attributes the increase in close quarters to a lack of transfers out of Wesleyan last year.

“We do not have a lot of attrition, whereas other schools will factor in that a certain number of students will transfer elsewhere,” she said. “As our students stay, it reduces the spots available for freshmen, which is a good problem to have.” Some students have adjusted quite well to living in the triples, which are all located in the Butterfield dorms.

“I appreciate the Butts,” Jonathan Spindel ’11 said, “We don’t have ants like in WestCo. It’s even big enough so it can accommodate the three of us and our guests right now.”

“Their positive attitude is 90 percent of the battle,” Koerting said. “It’s wonderful that they are coming into it with such a positive attitude. The other 10 percent is communication. Have realistic expectations. If you look at it as we can get along, anything that happens after that is a gift.”

The tripling technique has become popular in colleges across the nation, from Barnard to

the University of Michigan. At the peak of the University of Michigan’s housing crunch in 1998, 300 triples were occupied and 34 students took temporary residence in the school’s lounges.

“A lot of schools are finding that they have to resort to triples,” Koerting said. According to a ResLife email sent to the students assigned to triples, “The rooms are very large, and can accommodate three sets of furniture.”

Students later confirmed this statement.

“I talked to someone [who had a triple] beforehand,” David Foregger ’11 said. “His room had been big, so I took it as a good sign. It’s definitely a very sweet set up.”

Robby Hardesty ’11, Foregger’s roommate, added, “I was shocked at how big it was.”