Office of Res Life Moves 87 Hyatt Residents On-Campus

Zoe Stanton-Savitz ‘23

After an abundance of housing cancellations, the Sarah Lawrence Office of Residential Life has lodged all former Hyatt residents wanting on-campus housing.

According to Director of Residential Life Lynn Arthur, this was an unforeseen opportunity. In fact, a meeting of Hyatt residents was called in late fall with the intent of letting students know that “they should anticipate staying at the Hyatt” because the Office of Residential Life was unsure of the number of dorm vacancies.

Arthur says that students were offered the incentive of forgoing any financial penalty if they canceled housing by December 1, unlike in previous semesters.

“We felt strongly that we needed to have a system where we were giving students time to let us know if they wished to cancel their housing on campus,” Arthur says. “That was important to us because we didn’t have spaces on campus. That’s something we hope to keep instituted in the future. It helps us stay a little more organized and better prepare housing for new students and make better pairings when we can.”

According to Arthur, as of the beginning of January, seventy-seven housing cancellations poured into her office. Thirteenstudents planned to live off-campus and commute to school and the rest were “official changes of status” which could include studying abroad, withdrawing from the College, taking a leave of absence, or graduating. 

“As we were looking at the cancellations starting to come in in drips and drabs, it appeared that the majority of the Hyatt students would probably be able to live on campus.”

It wasn’t until after New Year’s that the office was confident that they had enough spaces to place all Hyatt residents in on-campus housing.

“There were approximately 100 students living at the Hyatt throughout the fall and by the beginning of the spring, all of them were back on campus or transitioned elsewhere,” Arthur says.

In all, eighty-seven students transitioned from living in the Hyatt to living in on-campus housing.

In addition to openings due to housing cancellations, the first and second floors of Osilas, formerly utilized as isolation and quarantine housing, have been reclaimed for residency. Osilas previously provided thirty-three rooms for isolation. Currently, there are only eleven with twenty-two former Hyatt residents occupying the building.

Arthur says that the diminishment of quarantine housing has been “manageable.”

“The third floor is empty to date,” she says.

Of the three student Residential Advisors who were working and living in the Hyatt, two have maintained their jobs and been placed in dorms on campus, and one is currently studying abroad. 

Because students were unable to leave belongings at the Hyatt during winter break, residents were offered school-funded moving services through the organization College Boxes. When housing assignments were released, College Boxes moved student belongings into their new on-campus dorms so “their belongings were waiting for them neatly placed for the new semester,” Arthur says.

In addition to this accommodation, future priority housing will be offered for former Hyatt residents.

“The College made the commitment to the students placed in the Hyatt and their families that they would be prioritized in the housing process next fall,” Arther says. “Even though we’re moving away from a housing lottery to a housing selection process, anyone that was placed in the Hyatt or the Hampton is assured housing in the fall.”

Many former Hyatt students are overjoyed to be back living on campus. 

“I’m definitely happy to be back on campus,” Avery Cushmore ‘24 says. “One thing I didn’t really think about last semester was how isolating it could be. I can actually hang out with my friends late at night now without worrying about missing the last shuttle or walking a half-mile in the dark.”

Izzy Hardin ‘24 vehemently agrees.

“It was so difficult to feel like I was part of the school community,” they say. “Like now I can hang out with my friends and go to the library late without feeling like I have to rush or else I’ll miss the shuttle. I’m glad to be on campus.”

Arthur says that although the majority of students prefer campus housing, there were a few outliers.

“We had requests from two or three students who wished to stay at the Hyatt but we had to say no,” Arthur says. “Some folks did recognize that it’s a lovely room and it had some decent accommodations, including a pool.”

Some students have expressed frustration over the dismissal of roommate preferences and the Office of Residential Life’s separation of former Hyatt roommate pairs. 

“I’d chosen my roommate based on how compatible we were, and they just didn’t care,” Hardin says. “It’s not like we were separated to be placed in singles, we were just shoved into other people’s rooms.”

In response to concerns regarding separating roommates, Arthur says that navigating placing students in empty spaces was “a difficult puzzle to solve.”

“We weren’t in a position to keep roommate pairings together,” Arthur says. “Not only was our priority placing them on campus, but by and large the folks who vacated at the end of the fall did not leave doubles.”

Despite a few bumps in the road, former Hyatt residents are excited to be back on-campus and reclaim their places as part of the SLC community. 

As Hardin so aptly puts it, “I would rather be here than the Hyatt any day.”