News

Murphy to Add Nine Beds to Campus Dormitories

Phillips Academy administrators will add nine upperclassmen beds to campus dorms this year as part of a new “Plus One” plan. Paul Murphy, Dean of Students and Residential Life, said the plan was designed to decrease the percentage of day students at the school, from the current 27 percent to 25 percent. “Instead of decreasing the number of day students [to achieve the desired ratio of day students to boarders], we want to increase the number of boarding students,” said Murphy. “In some ways it’s a business decision by the school to move in this direction. In this [economic] climate it makes no sense to take fewer [day] students. In fact, the decrease will start to impact our program if we start to get too small. We want to keep our population around 1100 or just under that,” he continued. Next year, the school will add an extra bed to five upperclassmen girl dorms—Adams Hall, Clement House, Stimson Hall, Paul Revere Hall and Whitney House—as well as four upperclassmen boy dorms—Bartlett Hall, Bishop Hall, Foxcroft Hall and Carriage House. Murphy said that the school originally planned to build small dorms to accommodate the increased number of boarding students. But because of financial constraints after market losses in the fall and winter, the school decided not to pursue the construction of new dorms. Murphy said that, in the absence of building more dorm rooms, he asked house counselors to brainstorm on how to add more beds to their dorms. He received suggestions from the 42 dorms on campus, evaluated the ideas and incorporated nine of them into the Plus One plan for next year. “[The plan has] been pretty well received. House counselors are on board,” said Murphy. “[The plan] doesn’t seem to have had a lot of pain associated with it. I think if you started to add two or three kids to a building that starts to feel harder to manage.” School administrators, in preparation for the addition of nine beds, are already purchasing furniture and making accommodations for next year. “We’re doing it long in advance, rather than waiting until the summer,” said Murphy. In Bishop, Foxcroft, Whitney and Clement, large single rooms will be turned into one-room doubles. An additional single will be created in Stimson out of a house counselor’s apartment. In Paul Revere, Adams and Bartlett, three-room doubles will be converted into triples to accommodate more beds. A lottery for these rooms took place in-cluster last week. Teruyo Shimazu, Instructor in Japanese and house counselor in Paul Rever, said, “At first when the proposal was made I was, to be honest, not very comfortable because Paul Revere is so big to begin with.” “Years ago, when we started from two triples, I liked it. [This year] we added one more, and [next year] we’re going to add one more, and my fear was: ‘Where is the limit?’” she continued. But Shimazu said that she understood the school’s decision after she heard about the budget restrictions on dorm constructions. “I was very pleased when so many freshman [interested in the triples] showed interest and excitement about going to Paul Revere,” said Shimazu. Juniors who drew the three-room triples are not only pleased with their situation, but also done with housing decisions before other Juniors. Trey Jennings ’12 will live in the Bartlett triple next year. “I am really excited because I can room with two of my friends, I got a ticket into Bartlett early and I know my housing situation ahead of time,” said Jennings. “I think [my roommates and I] will be received well in Bartlett as long as we don’t annoy the upperclassmen,” Jennings added. Murphy said, “I think it’s also fair that we’re asking returning kids to take these spaces, rather than new kids.” An increased number of residents in the affected dorms has yielded mixed opinions from current residents. Sophie Fourteau ’10, a resident of Paul Revere, said “[The addition of another triple] is necessary, but it will make our dorm more crowded. I don’t mind too much because it gives us an opportunity to meet new people.” Dan Larson ’11, a resident of Barlett, said that he is not happy that there is one fewer three-room double he can occupy next year. “[The triple] diminishes my chances for a three-room double [next year] as an Upper. Last year, all of the two-year Lowers in my situation right now got a three-room double for this year. I do not know if [my situation] will be as nice this year,” said Larson. The conversion of dorm rooms to fit more beds on campus is not an unprecedented move. Last year, administrators converted large singles in Nathan Hale, the largest freshman girls’ dormitory, into one-room doubles. Murphy said that more beds were added to Nathan Hale because “the class of ’12 yielded higher than our target, so we were over by four or five ninth grade girls last summer.” Murphy said that the school plans to keep the rooms in Nathan Hale as one-room doubles for next year.