Construction delays on a new first-year dorm will force some incoming first-years to accommodate up to three people in their dorm rooms. Students will not be able to move into Woody House, the new dorm in the Alderman Road residence area, until around November 15.
The new residence hall in the Alderman Road area is being named the Woody House, in honor of the late University French and Spanish Professor Thaddeus Braxton Woody.
Director of Housing Mark Doherty said the first years assigned to Woody House temporarily will live in other residence halls, mainly in the suites of the other Alderman Road dorms, before moving into their permanent residence in the late fall.
"We will use the 'fishbowl rooms' in the front room of each suite. There will be 134 temporary triples," Doherty said.
He added that the move-in date would be "no later than" November 15.
Lawson said Woody House residents will receive both a temporary assignment and roommates and a permanent assignment and roommate.
Brochures and letters of explanation about the Woody House situation will be mailed to first-year students next week, according to Doherty.
"We're sending out information, a description of the triple situation, and images of the new residence hall," he said. "The worst thing is to surprise people - our duty is to get as much information out as possible."
Doherty added that the students who are living in the triples and those who will live in Woody House were randomly chosen from the students who indicated they wanted to live in the Alderman Road residence area.
Incoming first-year Leigh Bladergroen from Richmond said the temporary arrangements for the Woody House residents may be inconvenient for a while.
"I think it's obviously not going to make people happy," Bladergroen said. "Maybe the school should have planned a little better, but it's only through November and not the whole year."
Doherty said the numbers for first-year enrollment have been going up over the last few years, which caused the need for Woody House.
Lawson said the new dorm will be like the Cauthen House in many ways - including having air conditioning.
"We've been told that Cauthen is a good residence hall," Doherty said. "The most notable exception will be no computer labs and no first-year resource center like in Cauthen, but we will keep the large study lounge and two smaller study lounges on each floor" like Cauthen has, Doherty said.
The residence staff who eventually will live in Woody will live in the Alderman suites as well, doubling up with permanent Residence Advisors until Woody House is open, according to Doherty.
"Sure there will be complaints, but for the most part there will be questions," he said.
He added that a Web site providing information on Woody House is under construction and will soon be up as a link from the Facilities Management web page.
President John T. Casteen, III chose Woody's name for the new dorm from a list of suggestions from the University Names Committee, according to Board of Visitors secretary Alexander S. "Sandy" Gilliam. Casteen himself was taught by Woody in the 1960s.
Woody played a decisive role in allowing women to study at the University. During his term as an assistant dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, then-President Edgar F. Shannon, Jr. selected him to chair a committee to investigate the possibility of coeducation at the University.
According to a memorial resolution drawn up by Mary B. McKinley, chair of the department of French Language and Literature, Woody "had not been a supporter of coeducation, but he conducted a thorough review, and in November 1968 he and his committee recommended rescinding restrictions on admitting women to the College."
The resolution said Woody "was known as a demanding taskmaster, but one who was never too busy to devote individual attention to his students."
Gies said Woody possessed great "mental acuity" through his 90s, and McKinley noted that the French and Spanish professor would go to events at the French House and socialize with faculty and students.
Woody grew up in Petersburg, Va. and earned his Bachelor's from the University in 1928. He later studied at the University of Puerto Rico, the Sorbonne in France and Indiana University. He taught at Indiana and Northwestern University, and then came back to the University in 1928 where he taught French and Spanish until 1971.
Woody was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron Delta Kappa, the Raven Society and the Jefferson Society.
Woody passed away in January at the age of 98.
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