“Notre Dame’s office of residential life informed students in the 2021-2022 cohort of the Holy Cross Gateway Program that housing will be unavailable for them and all other transfers for the 2022-2023 academic year.”
It is very disappointing that ND waited until students already committed to disclose a situation they knew about last summer. But I’m not surprised.
My D was accepted to transfer starting this past August and the housing issue which existed for Fall 2020 transfers was the deciding factor in her decision to not attend. The university also displayed zero empathy at how forcing transfer students to live off campus would negatively impact their integration into campus life.
Notre Dame continues to tout and market dorm life and community but they’re doing nothing to improve their housing crunch. In addition, the dorms are already very crowded, with many triples and quads in each dorm where each student must loft their bed and their closet and desk are underneath and it’s incredibly cramped.
I hope the gateway and transfer kids embrace the off campus opportunities because the living conditions and arrangements are often much nicer than the dorms. And there are a few condo and apartment complexes nearby where these students can form their own communities.
At the minimum the gateway and transfer students should be given the opportunity to be assigned to a dorm to enhance their integration and participation in both the dorm and greater ND communities.