Kevin Stearns/University Photography

The Hasbrouck Apartments near North Campus will house undergraduates for the first time in a pilot program starting in 2006-07.

Cornell graduate students and families living at the Hasbrouck Apartments are working with Campus Life to prepare for the arrival of undergraduates to the complex in the fall for the 2006-07 academic year.

In a pilot program to address a projected lack of undergraduate housing, Campus Life will allow up to 30 seniors to live in 10 apartments at the 338-unit residence complex at the eastern edge of Cornell's North Campus. If the pilot program succeeds, Hasbrouck could house up to 270 more undergraduates during 2007-08, while construction continues on the West Campus Residential Initiative (WCRI).

"There isn't a [housing] shortfall this year, but we're anticipating a shortfall [on West Campus] next year or the following year so we thought this would be a good time to do a pilot," said Sharron Thrasher, director of student affairs and diversity for Campus Life. "And we have a lot of vacancies at Hasbrouck right now; we have 24 units without anyone in them."

Another 71 units are currently housing "visitors," she said -- non-student residents including postdoctoral researchers, visiting fellows and research associates. Some are short-term residents needing housing after relocating to Ithaca, and others have lived at Hasbrouck for two years or more, Thrasher said.

Some Hasbrouck residents have petitioned Campus Life with concerns that the change will adversely affect the family-oriented community, which includes more than 100 children.

"I would say half of the people who come to the residential council meetings have children," said Jie Zhu, 26, a married Ph.D. candidate who has lived at Hasbrouck for two and a half years. "Some people that have children are concerned, because undergraduates do have a very different lifestyle."

Campus Life officials said the impact of introducing undergraduates to the complex has been considered. "When we went out and advertised and solicited interest, we made it very clear it was a family environment and there were certain rules that people needed to observe," Thrasher said.

Frank Carollo, director of marketing and communications for Campus Life, said, "Our initial thought is to get not just seniors, but seniors who are particularly mature, [and] recruit upper-level students who want to live in an apartment setting, so we could do some screening in placing them."

At a Feb. 27 forum, a council of Hasbrouck residents asked Campus Life whether postdocs and visiting professors could renew their leases, and whether any other residents would have to relocate in the next few years. Their other requests included a resident adviser system for undergrads at the complex.

"We understand that the university promises undergraduates housing, but where are the graduate students supposed to go?" Zhu said. "Hasbrouck is the only complex that can house married or partnered couples."

The need to house undergraduates at Hasbrouck will be phased out as the five-house WCRI is completed. The third new West Campus residence, Hans Bethe House, will open in January 2007, said Mike MacAnanny, project manager for the residential initiative. The fourth and fifth houses are scheduled to open in August 2008 and August 2009, respectively.

To make way for the new buildings, "Class of '18 and Class of '26 Halls will be demolished in spring of '07," MacAnanny said.

"With the Class of '17 [Hall] coming down in '07-08, we're expecting a shortfall of 270 undergraduate beds on West Campus," Carollo said. "If the pilot project is successful, we may house up to that number of students in Hasbrouck. That is one of the options for where those displaced students might go. The timing and location is not set in stone at this point." When West Campus is completed in 2008-09, "it's anticipated it will no longer be necessary to house undergrads in Hasbrouck from then on. That should cover the projected shortfall of capacity," Carollo said.

A Hasbrouck advisory council, including housing administrators and a group of 10 residents, is being formed and will meet March 30 to discuss the changes at the residential facility. The goal is "collaboration between the two parts of the community in living peacefully together," Thrasher said.