by Jeamilett Martinez ‘25 and Victoria Merlo ‘25
Many students are wondering who is able to live in the new dorms this year? What are they going to do about West campus? What will the new dorm be called? Why are they building it on the main campus? Well, after talking with Dean Vachris, we discovered there are some new plans this year for the building.
According to Dean Vachris, we can expect the new dorm to be done by August, 2022. The plan is to get students in the new dorm before the start of the next academic year. As one knows, freshman living on the West Campus is a tradition of sorts, a passageway into freshman year and with fourth formers who either loved the walk or couldn’t get a spot on main. The excruciating long walks passing the pond on cold early mornings is something that all borders could remember. Now, they are going to be moving to Main Campus. Don’t fret St. Markers, not only the rising freshmen will live there, 4th, 5th, and 6th formers would be living there too, along with 12 other faculty members.
As for West Campus, it is not quite clear what exactly the school is going to do with it, but they appear to be thinking about making West Campus into some type of athletic center. Both Varsity Girls Soccer and Varsity Boy Soccer practice there and in reality no one really goes there besides the fact that they practice or live there.
In the dorms, one of the differences from all the rest is that all different types of forms are going to live there. The 3rd floor is going to be for the new 3rd formers and the other floors would be for 4th, 5th and 6th formers. The most exciting new features included in the new dorm are the much spacious common rooms to hang out with friends, with a kitchen and projector. As for the name of the dorm, it is still being decided, along with other factors that are still in the developing stages.
You would think that breaking a tradition would be bad, dispiriting West campus since no one is going to be living there. On the contrary though, the building of the new dorm will bring people together and it will finally make St. Marks a school all under one roof.
