GSC Statement on North Park Graduate Housing

On November 6, the office of Interim Provost David Kotz and Executive Vice President Richard Mills informed the Graduate Student Council that North Park Graduate Housing (111 beds) will be occupied exclusively by undergraduates starting next year – the 2022-2023 academic year. The expressed reason for this decision is to allow for the renovation of Andres Hall (84 beds) and Zimmerman Hall (86 beds), which will begin during Summer 2022. The choice was made without the consultation of the Graduate Student Council and without listening to advice from the administration of the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies.

Senior Leadership’s decision to eliminate North Park as a housing option for graduate students – an act made by Dartmouth College executives for the second time in less than five years – is more than just an appalling course of action. It is a rash, unimaginative attempt to address one aspect of the systemic housing crisis affecting undergraduates, graduate students, Dartmouth staff and faculty, and the broader Upper Valley community. The Graduate Student Council condemns this decision and the process by which it came about. Our primary issues are as follows:

1. We condemn this decision because it precludes graduate and medical students from easily living in Hanover, NH. North Park is the only housing community for graduate and medical students in Hanover. The North Park location allows first-year graduate students to immerse themselves in an unfamiliar neighborhood and to build a community with their peers. Without North Park, graduate and medical students become wholly detached from the town that Dartmouth calls home.

2. We condemn this decision because it creates more adversity for our international student community. The Graduate Student Council conducted a housing survey over Summer 2021 and found that the inability to access campus due to lack of transportation was one of the greatest barriers for first-year and international graduate students. Many first-year international students do not have licenses or cars when they arrive at Dartmouth, and the process of obtaining both can take a minimum of one year. North Park’s proximity to campus allows these students to settle into Dartmouth without the worry of finding a way to get to class, lab, or the office.

3. We condemn this decision because in addition to easing transportation challenges for international students, North Park is the only housing option which currently comes with furniture, electricity, heating, and internet included. With all the burdens that international students already face (e.g., language barriers, visas, financing, and transportation), the North Park accommodation is a critical resource to ensure that international students are not overburdened as soon as they arrive. The assigned Guarini fellow assists North Park residents in acclimating to Dartmouth and accessing on-campus resources. Losing this incredibly valuable resource negatively impacts the general health and well-being of the graduate community.

4. We condemn this decision because it exacerbates the housing crisis in the Upper Valley. Next spring and summer, over 100 first-year graduate students (all of which would typically be eligible for North Park) will be participating in the dismal sweepstakes of finding housing in the Upper Valley. Yet, those same 100 beds will be insufficient to house all students displaced from Andres and Zimmerman and will simultaneously be too minuscule to address the ongoing housing crisis for Dartmouth undergraduates. This action plasters over the long-standing cracks in housing for undergraduate community members and exposes a wound facing the graduate and professional student communities. The Summit on Juniper apartments, expected to become available to lease starting early 2022 and will be move-in ready in August 2022, have been cited as the reason for why the graduate student community should not be so disappointed in this decision. However, as it currently stands, these apartments are:

   • More expensive than North Park apartments and do not include common utilities (e.g., electricity, hot water).

   • Over three miles from campus and still do not have any solidified plans for their shuttle system (which may impact rent prices).

   • Are not exclusively reserved for graduate students despite the short period of time that graduate students are considered “priority” applicants (i.e., January to May only).

Furthermore, it should be explicitly stated that this decision to take North Park away from the graduate student community directly defies Dartmouth’s own pledge for Inclusive Excellence:

• Dartmouth has pledged to confront and learn from the past, but has blatantly repeated the same harmful mistake.

• Dartmouth has pledged to increase transparency, but did not include graduate students in any conversations surrounding this decision.

• Dartmouth has pledged to build a more inclusive community, but are disproportionately harming international students and concurrently excluding graduate and medical students from Hanover and the preexisting Dartmouth community.

In May 2017, the Graduate Student Council executive board expressed their worries about graduate student accessibility, loss of graduate student community, and the lack of graduate stakeholders being consulted in decision-making processes. In November 2021, these conditions are no different. The choice by administrators then is the same as the choice now – shortsighted, uninformed, and insulting to the Dartmouth graduate student community. The Graduate Student Council will do everything it can to bring attention to how this decision is problematic and advocate for graduate students to return to Hanover in the future.

The Dartmouth Graduate Student Council