Officials are relocating the University Honors Program’s upperclassmen housing from Amsterdam Hall to District House next year, which honors students say forced them to dismantle their planned four-person living arrangements weeks before the housing registration period.

Officials announced in a newsletter to honors students on Feb. 4 that they would guarantee housing for UHP members planning to live in the Honors Living-Learning Community next year in District House two-person studio units instead of Amsterdam four-person units — the arrangement since 2021. Students in the UHP who had planned to live in four-person roommate groups in honors housing said they fear they’ll lose a sense of community within the program as many have opted out of the LLC after the location change.

UHP students currently living in Amsterdam also won’t have the option to renew their rooms, as officials made the residence hall exclusive to rising sophomores for the 2025-26 academic year. The UHP housing change came about two weeks before housing registration opened on Thursday, which spurred disappointment among some first-years who had hoped to move into Amsterdam next year.

University spokesperson Julia Garbitt said the Campus Living & Residential Education department moved the UHP to District House because its affinity housing is a “better programmatic fit.”

“Periodically, we reassess group placements and make modifications to better align with programmatic needs and desired outcomes,” Garbitt said in an email. 

Garbitt declined to comment on whether officials would make exceptions for students to live in Amsterdam for those with pre-planned four-person roommate groups.

First-year UHP student Harry Crowley sent an email to the CLRE department on the same day officials announced the change, saying officials made the decision to move honors housing to District without explanation, forcing some roommate groups to break up.

He also said the changes were “unfair” to the first-year UHP class who, after living on the Mount Vernon Campus this academic year, no longer have priority access to Amsterdam’s “amenities and luxuries,” like dishwashers and living rooms.

A CLRE staff member replied in an email later that day, stating that the program’s move to District House is “final,” though they did not address officials’ reasoning. 

The staff member also said UHP students who wish to live in Amsterdam next year would have to opt out of UHP housing and place Amsterdam at the top of their ranking in the general housing registration, though there wouldn’t be any guarantee that they’d obtain rooms in Amsterdam if they chose to do so. 

“The only dorm assignment guaranteed to UHP students is District House double style dorms,” the CLRE staff member wrote in the email.

Three UHP students said they’re concerned about their housing options for the upcoming year because they want to opt out of UHP housing to try to secure an Amsterdam room but don’t want to risk getting a less favorable option.

Tessa Hitchcock, a first-year student in the UHP, said officials were “in their right” to make the change, but the timing of the announcement added extra stress onto UHP students who had to rearrange their roommate groups for next year.

She said in West Hall, where the University requires all first-year UHP students to live, it’s common for the students to develop “casual connections,” which she said are now put in jeopardy by the change because the UHP community will be more split up as students opt out of the District housing.

“You make little friends with people that you see in the hallways or who are in your classes, who you invite over for a movie or something,” Hitchcock said. “I think that will make it way harder for those connections, those very casual connections, to stay connections at all.”

B.C. Sommerfield, a first-year student in the UHP, said he was “disheartened” by the change because he had grown close to his three suitemates over the past year, and now they’re no longer guaranteed housing together. He said he and his roommates don’t plan to live in LLC housing next year because of the change and will pursue other four-person housing options.

“I do not think I will be because then I would be leaving my three suitemates or two suitemates behind, and that’s not something I want to do,” Sommerfield said.

Sommerfield said he also believes there will be fewer opportunities for UHP students to foster a sense of community now that they no longer have priority housing in Amsterdam since fewer UHP first-years will opt to live in District to instead pursue four-person rooms.

“Seeing as Amdam is no longer the direct honors dorm and a second-year dorm, I don’t think there’s going to be as much community within the honors kids outside of their classes,” Sommerfield said.

First-year UHP student Daniella Gavalas said while was not upset with the District doubles plan, she was disappointed that the update came just weeks before housing registration opened because it left UHP students scrambling to adjust their roommate groups from four people to two.

“People were thinking of rooming with their current roommates into Amdam, so plans have really been really hard to reconstruct for everyone,” Gavalas said.

Gavalas said living in West Hall again has become an alternative option for UHP upperclassman students hoping to live in four-person groups since honors housing switched to District, but she said this would be unfair because UHP first-years are already required to live on the Vern.

“Now we have to think about what other quads are options, and now some people are even worried they might have to be at West Hall again,” she said.

Gavalas also said the University’s guarantee of upperclassmen honors housing in Amsterdam was an incentive for her to continue participating in the program. She said she is leaning toward living in honors housing in District but continues to keep options open in case rooms are available in Amsterdam.

“It wasn’t part of my decision to join honors, but it was part of my decision to continue participating in honors because Amdam is very nice housing,” she said.

Lily Shaw, a second-year student living in Lafayette Hall, said she didn’t feel strongly about the policy changes. She said she was not concerned about the honors program losing priority housing in Amsterdam because District House was a fair adjustment.

“I think District House is a good location,” Shaw said. “And the District House affinity, one of my friends lives in one right now and really enjoys it. So I like that they’re making it a honors affinity in District House.”