Right before the beginning of the 2023-24 academic year, the College of William and Mary announced its plans for a $700 million dollar construction project that would renovate or replace 80% of the College’s current housing over the course of ten years, spanning over three phases. Phase one of the project began in July 2023, kick-starting the construction of new housing for the College. This $320 million dollar plan included the renovation of Old Dominion and Monroe Halls and the construction of five new dorms: four located at the old location of Yates Hall and one adjacent to Lemon and Hardy Halls. “West Woods 1” would take the location of Yates, including four new halls named Oak, Maple, Poplar and Pine. Cedar Hall is located near Lemon and Hardy. The construction was projected to be completed before the beginning of the fall 2025 semester, housing incoming freshmen, transfers and returning students. After extensive work to develop the new buildings, spanning over two years, the College abruptly shared before the beginning of the fall 2025 semester that residents planning to live in Cedar, Pine and Oak Halls would be relocated to alternative housing until the completion of the construction. As of Oct. 2025, all students put in alternative housing have been placed in their originally intended dorms of Oak, Poplar, Pine and Cedar.
The new residence halls house around 1,200 students across the five dorms. Poplar and Maple, the two smallest dorms, house 120 and 150 students, respectively. Cedar and Pine house 270 and 500 students, respectively. Cedar and Pine are both housing for first-year students, and half of Pine provides housing for returning undergraduate students. The absence of the Pine, Cedar and Oak Halls left around 900 students without housing for the fall semester. First-year students received priority for being relocated to on-campus housing, with the Green and Gold Village and Richmond Hall being utilized to temporarily house students. Around 500 freshmen were relocated to these halls, leaving around 400 upperclassmen to either live in Richmond Hall or off-campus at the Williamsburg Woodlands Hotel. Assuming Richmond Hall received half first-year, and half returning students, around 300 students were forced to live in hotel rooms until the construction was completed. This setback has proved to be quite a cost for the College.
The College shared that the relocation would come cost-free to the students affected, providing some monetary support to the students as well. The College issued a credit of $22.50 for each day the students lived in the hotel or an alternative dorm at the end of the fall semester, accounting for half the cost of the rent for their given room. This means that per night, the College spent around $90 for a standard double. In addition to this, the College provided a free shuttle service from the hotel to the Sadler Center, provided by the Williamsburg Chauffeur Service. The Flat Hat did not find a concrete price for a day rental of a shuttle bus; however, local competitor services quote approximately $1500 to $3000 a day for the service of a shuttle bus.
For 300 students, the College must have rented approximately 150 rooms in the hotel. Per student, the College spent around $74 per student for students in Woodlands, accounting for the stipend, hotel cost and shuttle service. It also spent $13,500 a day on the stipends of $22.50 for the 600 other students living in alternate dorms. In a day, the College spent around $35,750 a day to accommodate all the students affected by the delays. Students previously relocated moved into their new dorms around Oct. 14th, making their temporary stay around 51 days. Knowing this, the College has spent roughly $1,820,700 accommodating students for the construction delays.
The Flat Hat spoke with Carlos Juarez ’27 about his experience living in the Woodlands Hotel, when at the time, he had not yet moved into his now dorm. He explained that despite some initial camaraderie after moving in, living in the hotel was very “low vibes.”
“It was very inconvenient due to the location, and I spent a lot of my time on campus or with friends who lived in a better location,” Juarez said.
After living on campus for the past two years, and planning to live on campus again in his third year, he stated he felt “more distant from campus” in a social sense and missed the atmosphere and ease of living. However, Juarez did express his gratitude at the time for how the College had dealt with the situation.
“I’ll be happy when I move into the new dorms, it’ll be worth it in the end,” Juarez said at the time of the situation.
