Two new dorms that opened on West Campus this fall have helped alleviate a housing crunch, allowing all undergraduates to live on campus for at least four years if they wish.
Together with the humanities-themed Ng House that opened in East Campus in 2015, the new dorms – Meier Hall and Norcliffe Hall – mark Stanford’s recent push to expand undergraduate residences after about 20 years without additions. The two four-class residences, which each house 109 students along with resident fellows, were dedicated privately on Sept. 12 and 13, respectively.
Housing crunch
Stanford began placing some undergraduate students in the off-campus Oak Creek Apartments in 2009. (Previously, the University placed some students off-campus in the early 2000s during a yearlong renovation of Branner Hall.) Subsequent attempts to eliminate Oak Creek from the housing lottery were stymied by higher-than-expected admission yields, as more prospective freshmen than anticipated decided to attend Stanford.
In 2014, 161 undergraduates were assigned to Oak Creek; Ng House’s opening helped decrease that number to 108 for autumn quarter of 2015. This year, no students were assigned to Oak Creek, which sits on Sand Hill Road, about 10 minutes by bike from the Main Quad. Ninety-six percent of undergraduates live on campus, and the small number of students currently living off-campus do so by choice, said Rodger Whitney, executive director of student housing/CHO for Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE).
“The University guarantees undergraduates four years of housing on campus,” Whitney wrote in an email to The Daily. “[Meier, Norcliffe and Ng] totaled 341 new student bed spaces and have allowed us to keep this commitment.”
Undergraduates past their fourth year are not guaranteed housing.
Meanwhile, graduate housing remains strained. Of 6,344 graduate students who applied to the 2015-2016 graduate housing lottery, 1,414 were not initially assigned. The University hopes to address the shortage with an ongoing project to add 2,400 new graduate student beds to Escondido Village by fall of 2019. In addition, the Graduate School of Business’ just-opened Highland Hall promises to house all first-year MBA students who want to live on campus.
The new dorms
Meier and Norcliffe join a Lagunita Court complex originally built in the 1930s. They are both named after Stanford alumni. Meier Hall honors a donation from the children of Linda Meier ’61 and Tony Meier ’57, who volunteered and fundraised for Stan in many capacities for Stanford after graduating. Norcliffe Hall honors The Norcliffe Foundation, a charity nonprofit founded in 1952 by Paul Pigott ’23.
The new dorms in Lagunita include multiple small gathering areas that Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE) officials said received positive feedback from students in Ng House. In addition to the standard main lounges and kitchenettes, Meier and Norcliffe have “multimedia” rooms, a variety of workspaces and basement music rooms with pianos and sheet music stands.
“Meier seems designed around community spaces,” said Meier resident Maurice Chang ’19.
Other students had similar praise for the dorms, saying they appreciated the design and spacious bedrooms. Some had qualms: Freshmen in Meier wanted more recreational equipment, noting the ping pong tables and pool tables in their friends’ dorms. And while Chang liked the social vibe of Meier’s common areas, he wished that the bedroom doors did not automatically shut. As a freshman last year in Trancos, he enjoyed the friendly atmosphere encouraged by a hall where open doors were the norm.
On the whole, though, students were impressed.
“I think [the new dorms] are phenomenal,” said Michael Karr ’20, who lives in Norcliffe. “I’ve heard the word ‘resort’ going around for Norcliffe and Meier, and I feel like that’s pretty apt.”
Contact Hannah Knowles at hknowles ‘at’ stanford.edu.