Students will not be able to pick into West College or Brooks in the general housing lottery for the 2026-27 academic year. These buildings will be reserved for first-year housing, according to Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Jeff Malanson. This change comes as a result of the flooding of Fayerweather in December, which Housing expects will keep the dormitory closed for the duration of the next academic year. 

Malanson explained that the loss of a large dorm like Faye forced the College to find additional housing for the class of 2030. “With Faye’s 85 beds offline for 2026-27, we needed to identify alternative residence halls that we could assign to our first-year program,” Malanson wrote in an email to the Record. “Due to their location and size, West and Brooks were our best options.” 

Despite Brooks and West’s removal from the general housing lottery, upperclass students might be able to pick into Brooks if the College no longer needs to use the dorm to house first-year students. The College will be able to make this decision after it determines the size of the Class of 2030. “We may be able to move Brooks back into upperclass housing for the academic year, but we will not be able to make that determination until summer,” Malanson wrote. 

Some Junior Advisors (JAs) are concerned that relocating first-year entries away from Frosh Quad and Currier Quad could inhibit community building among first-years. “The frosh are going to be so far away from their friends,” East College JA Laura Sullivan ’27 said. “I lived in West as a sophomore, and it was great, but I was far from everyone.” 

Sullivan also said that the lack of common spaces in West and Brooks will present opportunities and challenges to future JAs. “Having only one common room in East has been really good because it has allowed for our entire dorm to come together for movie and game nights,” she said. “However, it can also be hard for large entries, like ours, because not everyone can fit in the space.”