For a long time, students have been wondering exactly what the dorm options will be for the 2013 housing lottery. On Wednesday, ResCouncil posted a list of all the changes. We’ve broken them down for you in an easy-to-digest map:

Note: Greek and program houses located in sophomore communities will still be open to juniors and seniors.

A year ago, the University announced a sweeping plan for renovating and reorganizing campus housing. We won’t recap the details of that, but there are some important differences between that plan and the new one: Perkins will be sophomore doubles, not junior/senior singles, and Slater and Hegeman will be for juniors and seniors, not sophomores. Read more here.

Image via.

Many former Keeney residents were shocked when they returned to campus to find that the building received a major facelift. But this summer’s changes hardly end there.

Today’s Herald featured a spread that breaks down all of this and next summer’s housing changes, which aim to create a more uniform progression of housing from freshman to senior year. Since we’ve already given you a photo tour of the new Keeney, we now bring you inside some of the other renovated dorms.

[Read more →]

This changes everything.

Living in Keeney has been known to have its advantages and disadvantages. For a long time, Keeney Quadrangle has been defined as a hub of activity due to its large concentration of freshmen first-years (+).  Keeney was also defined by the condition of its interior: not so great (-). The furniture was old, the bathrooms were gross, and kitchen and lounge space was scarce.

As part of a larger plan for dorm renovations, Keeney is being renovated in two phases. The first phase, which occurred this summer, overhauled and reconfigured student rooms and created new “magnet lounges” (with fancy kitchens!) on the top floors. Next summer, the bathrooms and hallways will be renovated, elevator installation will be completed, and the building will be split into three separate sections. Check out BlogDailyHerald’s tour of the new and improved Keeney after the jump.

[Read more →]

‘Tis the season! Even if you’ve been swept up by the Finals Countdown and have been in a perpetual SciLi state of mind, you can’t ignore the holiday cheer that has swept over Providence. The question is: have you been celebrating the most wonderful time of year? Let’s be real: prep for finals period means your dorm room is neglected, your bed remains unmade and you haven’t seen the top of your desk since midterms. But it’s the holidays, yo! Give your dorm room some Holiday TLC. BlogDailyHerald is here to make sure your room is filled with holiday cheer.

Get crafty

• Paper snowflakes: Remember that POLS paper you swore you’d never look at again? Now’s your chance to recycle it to a more jolly life. Follow online tutorials like this one (you can skip ahead to 0:45), and turn your realist argument into sweet wall decorations!
• Coffee and tea wreaths: We know your coffee and tea consumption have gone up exponentially in the past week. So take your vice and turn it into a festive wreath! Whether it’s your collection of Starbucks sleeves or the Tazo bags you’ve been stocking up on, you can turn your caffeinated drink of choice into a crafty door dec.
• Jingle bells: Do you fucking love the holidays? Do you hate your roommate? If you answered either of these questions with an enthusiastic “Yes!”, you might want to vent your emotions by purchasing vast quantities of sleigh bells. Hang them on your door handle, sow them onto your pillows, make yourself a bracelet… Be aggressively merry. But while these are the epitome of Christmas cheer, they get very annoying very fast. However, they send a very clear message: I fucking love Christmas and I WANT YOU TO KNOW IT. [Read more →]