Stony Brook University’s difficult and limited housing situation at the beginning of the 2024-25 academic year left many students struggling. The high volume of incoming students, paired with unanticipated flooding, led to a lack of housing options. As a result, many students were waitlisted for housing on campus, and some were even forced to live at both the nearby and campus hotels.
At the beginning of the academic year, Long Island, N.Y experienced disastrous flash flooding. This left in Chávez, Gray and Ammann Halls flooding and the Mendelsohn Community with no power. By mid-October 2024, all residential halls were repaired, aside from Ammann Hall, which was restored in January.
In response, Assistant Vice President of Campus Residences Catherine-Mary Rivera and Vice President for Student Affairs Rick Gatteau designated certain rooms as temporary triples. Students living in these rooms were provided with a 15% reduction in their room costs.
However, during an Undergraduate Student Government (USG) meeting on Thursday, March 27, Rivera shared Stony Brook’s goal of partnering with a local hotel to house students the following year in case of an emergency similar to the flooding in August 2024. Those staying at the hotel would need to take a shuttle bus to the campus since the hotel is 3 miles away.
Yet, even without the obstacles presented by these unexpected weather conditions, there were signs of an overabundance of incoming students despite limited housing accommodations.
Last summer, Campus Residences enforced the Radius Policy, a new policy restricting on-campus housing availability for incoming first-year, graduate and transfer students.
Subhana Mysha, an out-of-state freshman from Texas majoring in biology, shared her concerning housing experience.
“I was waitlisted [from housing and when I found out], I was so sad. I had a roommate planned and everything,” Mysha said. “I heard an offer thankfully before Aug. 14 [, 2024]. For a while [my family and I] didn’t know where I would be housed and that was really stressful.”
Following her waitlist, Mysha looked into off-campus housing — only to find limited and uncomfortable options.
Hana Vo, an out-of-state transfer student and junior majoring in psychology, explained that as a transfer student, she also experienced delays in several areas. She mentioned how transfer students are at a disadvantage when it comes to housing selections.
“Sometimes transfer students are given a later date than those who aren’t [even] choosing housing,” Vo said. “It often made me feel a step late to everything, including housing. It sometimes makes me anxious [thinking], ‘what if there’s no spots left?’”
However, she noted that aside from her concern of being at a slight disadvantage, she experienced no other housing difficulties.
“I felt relieved to know that I have a place to stay for the next academic year,” she said. “So far I have yet to face too [many] troubles with housing.”
As these issues unfolded, Interim President Richard L. McCormick demanded on numerous occasions that housing issues at the University be addressed. He previously mentioned that prospective students who wish to attend are greeted with housing as their only challenge. He asserted that as a flagship institution, changes and improvements need to be made toward the housing discrepancies.
During his State of the University Address in September 2024, McCormick revealed plans to build a new residential area called Seawolves Village. He announced that it would accommodate more than 500 students and is expected to be complete by fall 2025.
In the months following McCormick’s speech, Rivera and Gatteau have disclosed further details into projects meant to tackle housing issues at numerous USG meetings. On March 27, USG received a visit from Campus Residences to present several housing projects that are currently in development.
Rivera discussed two projects, one of which was Seawolves Village, a new community with seven dorm buildings that would be located near H Community, as well as Tabler 6, an additional dorm that would be part of the Tabler Community. She described the exterior of Seawolves Village as being similar to the renovated Chapin Apartments.
Similar to McCormick’s speech, Rivera mentioned that Stony Brook has hit an all-time high in demand for dorms over the last couple of years and that these developments are meant to fulfill that increasing need.
She explained that Seawolves Village is being developed through prefabricated housing, which means it is built in an off-site, climate-controlled space to limit any potential delays due to weather.
Rivera noted during her presentation that prefabricated housing is more cost-effective, a point Gatteau later expanded on during another USG meeting on Thursday, April 17. Gatteau explained that with a traditional building process such as Tabler 6, it costs about $200,000 to build each room, but with Seawolves Village, it costs slightly over $100,000 for each room.
“These are permanent buildings — they’re not temporary. There is engineering, landscaping and everything that is done to prepare the land [for dormitories built onsite], but it is just being built elsewhere in a climate-controlled interior and it is going to be shipped here in pieces and put together,” Rivera said.
In her presentation, she detailed that prefabricated housing offers many benefits compared to on-site built housing.
“This method offers superior construction quality while reducing overall build time, as there are no weather-related delays,” she said. “The accelerated construction timeline also leads to cost savings, making it a highly efficient and effective approach to housing development.”
Rivera then outlined the projected timeline for completing the project. According to her presentation, the dorms will be delivered to Stony Brook between June and August of this year. Once delivered, Rivera estimated that on-site installation and additional work would be completed between July and September.
From September to November, the necessary inspections, Campus Residences preparations and punch lists — a document used in construction to list outstanding tasks — will be completed. Rivera’s initial timeline predicted that the dorms would be ready by mid-November.
Rivera shared that Seawolves Village is expected to house 492 residents. She emphasized that these dorms were not available during this year’s room selection process, which opened on Tuesday, April 1.
Instead, they are designated specifically for 200 first-year students who were put in temporary triple dorms, Radius Policy students, waitlisted students, students residing in local hotels and graduate students. These students will be able to move into the dorms by November and will reside there until the end of the 2025-26 academic year.
She included photos of Seawolves’ Village models during her presentation, showing what the dorms will look like once construction is completed. Each building will be two stories high and include air conditioning, as well as amenities such as a communal lounge area, kitchen and laundry room.
Rivera also noted that in the future, specifically during the 2026-27 academic year and onward, Seawolves Village will primarily house sophomores.
She also mentioned further plans for the future of Seawolves Village. Phases two and three will have the goal of creating an additional 1,000 beds. Rivera predicted this will be in the works between 2027-28 and will continue to use prefabricated housing. She emphasized that dorms built during phase two of expanding Seawolves Village will be “smaller suites [or] apartment-esque” style.
In response to the construction plans and location of Seawolves Village, at-large USG Senator Minal Iftikhar expressed concerns about parking.
“The parking by Seawolves Village [behind the Stony Brook Union] right now is meant for commuters. Is that [lot] going to be split between residential parking and commuters? Or will it be fully residential?” Iftikhar asked.
Rivera responded that Mobility and Parking Services (MAPS) will handle the parking situation, but mentioned that there is a plan to create at least 50 additional parking spots between Stadium Road and the Student Health and Counseling Center.
In an email to The Statesman, MAPS wrote that they do not anticipate any drastic changes with parking.
“There is no major impact on commuter parking [with] this project, as the planned residents of the Seawolves Village are freshmen and sophomores, which they are not eligible for a parking permit,” the email wrote.
Afterwards, Rivera moved on to the other housing project, Tabler 6. She mentioned that, unlike Seawolves Village, this project has been in the works for over four years and will not use prefabricated housing.
Originally, the project began prior to the COVID-19 pandemic; due to the outbreak, it had to be postponed. She highlighted that this $82 million project will house 310 students, primarily in double-occupancy, three-bedroom suites with kitchens and air conditioning. It is anticipated to be ready by fall 2027. Her presentation also included photos of the blueprints and design for Tabler 6.
In terms of parking for Tabler 6, a staff member of MAPS wrote, “There is also adequate parking space in the Tabler resident area, and there are no anticipated parking space issues.”
Rivera also mentioned that it was Gatteau and Rivera’s goal to partner with a local hotel to house students the following year in case of an emergency similar to last year’s flash flooding.
“We are still exploring other areas to [address] over occupancy. There are going to be students [who are] international, out of state [and] too far in New York to commute,” Rivera said. “Right now we have [the] Hilton Garden Inn … we [also] used Holiday Inn [Express] for emergency spaces for when we had the flood. We’re looking to see if we [can use] a local hotel and how much we can get for some spaces.”
She assured those present that students currently staying in the hotel and facing housing issues will be prioritized to move into Seawolves Village.
During the USG meeting on April 17, Gatteau confirmed that the Seawolves Village dorms are expected to be ready for move-ins on Saturday, Nov. 1. He also has hopes of securing a donor to name Tabler 6 and provided further explanation on topics Rivera previously touched upon.
Gatteau detailed to USG that they currently have 60 rooms available at the Holiday Inn Express, which, if necessary, will be used to house 58 residents and two resident assistants.
USG’s Vice President of University Affairs and incoming USG President Sarah Elbaroudy questioned Gatteau about complaints from the University Environment Committee, which expressed concern about being left out of the environmental decision-making process.
Elbaroudy asked Gatteau if the committee is included in discussing potential environmental effects, considering trees will be cleared to accommodate housing construction.
Gatteau confirmed that the committee would be involved moving forward. However, he acknowledged that concerns about the number of trees cleared may be an issue the University cannot fully resolve.
“It may have to be [an] agree to disagree moment because I’m not sure how the University can grow if you don’t cut down trees,” Gatteau replied. “I don’t know how we’d do that because that’s [what surrounds] the campus.”
Gatteau suggested a potential solution could be to plant more trees in other areas, as they have done so in the past when they’ve needed to clear areas for dorms.
The Environment Committee did not respond in request to a comment from The Statesman.
In an email to The Statesman, Campus Residences assured that their various housing projects reflect their proactive strategy to deliver high-quality living spaces in a timely manner.
“This innovative project exemplifies Stony Brook’s forward-thinking approach to addressing housing challenges and increased student demand, providing high-quality, energy-efficient and modern accommodations built in a shortened time frame and adhering to the highest standards.”
