One hundred and ten of the over 500 transfer students finally found a residence hall of their own this year in Schuyler House, a Cornell dorm in Collegetown that formerly housed graduate students. Now that the house has opened its doors to undergraduates, however, the University plans to have non-transfer upperclassmen reside in Schuyler next year, according to Susan Murphy ’73, vice president for student and academic services.

The University assigned transfer students to Schuyler this year to compensate for an over-enrollment of freshmen. Next year, however, University administrators want to maintain their policy of blocking groups of six transfers among non-transfer students. Some transfer students, like Andrew Brokman ’11 chair and founder of the Student Assembly Committee on Transfer Affairs, are skeptical of this decision.

“Transfer students come here a little wary, a little intimidated,” Brokman ’11 said. “And to put them in a place where it’s not making it easier for them to meet new people is unfortunate.”

When Brokman moved to Cornell as a transfer student last year, he found himself living cramped in a freshmen lounge on North Campus with two roommates. It was not what he had expected.

This first-year experience drove Brokman to form the which passed a resolution last semester calling for the reinstatement of a transfer student house.

The West Campus Residential Initiative resolved in 1999 to demolish the old Class of ’17 Hall Transfer Center and house blocks of six new transfer students together in Collegetown and West Campus residences. The University decided to move toward this integrated, suite- style living to help transfer stu- dents adapt to social and aca- demic life at Cornell.

The S.A. resolution, how- ever, said that Collegetown’s Schuyler House would serve as the best alternative to a transfer student program house.

University administrators, however, plan to continue housing transfer students with non-transfer students, accord- ing to Murphy.

“Our goal is to help trans- fers integrate into the Cornell community as quickly as possi- ble,” Murphy said. She explained that by blocking groups of transfer students among non-transfer students will allow them to foster rela- tionships with both, incoming and returning students.

Many transfer students said they felt Schuyler’s dis- tance from Central Campus –– it’s about a mile from the nearest dining hall –– made it a poor place to house students who had first arrived at Cornell.

“It’s definitely far from campus,” said Nick Krislov ’12, who transferred to Cornell this year from University of Michigan and now lives in Schuyler House. “There’s no dining hall, and the TCAT buses don’t run late at night if you’re on campus at the library and don’t have a car.”

The original Class of ’17 transfer house, with a capacity of 220 students, never held all the transfer students. Still, the Committee on Transfer Affairs conducted a survey last semes- ter and found that 88 percent of transfers who had lived there had a “positive” first-year living experience while only 1.5 percent reported a “nega- tive” experience.

“I think a transfer house is a great place to meet people because you aren’t a freshman and you aren’t acclimated to campus,” Krislov said. “Here [at Schuyler House] you’re pretty isolated from the gener- al population though.”

The survey led the Committee on Transfer Affairs to determine that a program house remained “the only real solution” for transfer students.

“Even though we will never be able to house all the trans- fers in one place,” Brokman said. “There should still be a place where transfers can live together and meet other new students; putting six kids together in suites throughout West Campus isn’t doing these kids justice.”

As the University launches efforts to “reimagine” Cornell, the administration is confident that budget cuts will not harm transfer housing. The student enrollment task force for budg- et planning will release a report this week detailing whether Cornell should increase enroll- ment, and if so, whether increases should come from freshmen, transfer, or graduate admissions. Depending on what the task force advises and what the University decides, transfer students may see dif- ferent opportunities for hous- ing in the coming years, Murphy said.