The College is not allowing students who have children while enrolled to live in housing that is reserved for those part of the Students with Advanced Life Experiences (SwALE) program.

Vi Beauchan ’28 and Isaac Rivera ’26, who were admitted under the College’s traditional admissions process, learned in September that they are expecting a child. The couple hoped that they would be able to live in College-provided housing, but have had to move to North Adams, where they pay for a portion of their housing costs out of pocket, Beauchan and Rivera shared in an interview with the Record. 

The SwALE program is intended for students admitted through the College’s transfer and veteran pathways. These students must be 24 years of age or older, or have a spouse or child living with them at the College. SwALEs have the option to live in the program’s designated, College-owned, apartment-style housing.

When Beauchan and Rivera learned that they would have a child, they started thinking about where they would live while remaining enrolled at the College. “We immediately started researching what our options were for having the child at Williams,” Beauchan said.

From their initial conversations with College representatives and other students who have faced similar circumstances, Beauchan and Rivera were hopeful that they would be able to live in a College-owned SwALE apartment. “It seemed as if we were going to be treated the same way [as SwALE students], and there was a unit possibly available,” Beauchan said.

In a November meeting with representatives of the College, however, Beauchan was told that she and Rivera would not be able to access SwALE housing or join the program. In the meeting, Beauchan learned that only students who meet the conditions of the SwALE program when they are admitted to the College will be able to access the program’s housing, she said.

Last year, Satya Benson ’26 received SwALE housing after having a child at the College with his spouse, he told the Record. Benson, 22, currently lives in SwALE housing with his family and will graduate in June.

The College reserves housing units in Williamstown for SwALE students whose living situations prevent them from moving into upperclass housing, according to Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Jeff Malanson. “The College has a small number of off-campus apartments, typically reserved for faculty and staff, that we make available to these transfer and veteran students,” he said.

Malanson told the Record that the SwALE housing units help attract non-traditional students to the College. “Providing this housing option to these transfer and veteran students has been an important part of making it possible to recruit and welcome these students to the College,” he said.

Malanson declined to comment on the details of individual students’ circumstances, including Beauchan and Rivera’s case.

For non-SwALE students who marry or have a child while they are enrolled, the College will provide a release to live off-campus and refund the student’s financial aid for room and board, Malanson said.

No SwALE unit was made available to Beauchan and Rivera, and finding housing with the College refund has been challenging, they said. Despite receiving a housing reimbursement from the College, the couple has to pay partially out of pocket for housing. The low supply and high cost of housing in Town has forced the couple to rent in North Adams, Beauchan said. “There’s just nowhere you can rent in Williamstown on the stipend,” Rivera said.

For Benson, getting to live in College-provided SwALE housing has been an essential help as a parent and student, he said. “It’s quite a stressful time, and not having to do a housing search during that time was such an important block of support that the College gave,” Benson said.

Despite the support he was able to receive from the College, Benson said that he feels the College could do a better job of helping students with children. “The College has several groups that they try to take into consideration, but I don’t think students with children are one of them,” he said.