The university anticipates that the remaining Carmichael Towers East will be taken down over Summer 2021, according to a March 19 email from Michael Jones of the Student Staff Selection Committee sent to resident advisors (RAs). 

The source for this email has been granted anonymity due to potential professional repercussions from the Office of Housing and Residential Experience (OHARE).

A university representative stated that decisions are still being made regarding specific plans or timing of the implosion.

Additionally, Jones’s email states that Chaffin Place, Mayfield Lodges and OHARE at the Village at Vanderbilt will be incorporated into the traditional student housing inventory beginning this fall. The Village at Vanderbilt was originally supposed to be a part of the Spring 2021 housing lottery but has since been designated as a quarantine housing site. 

The email also states that next semester, the university plans to host all first-year students on Commons. Branscomb Quad will return to housing upper-division students, but Blakemore House will continue serving as a “quarantine and isolation space to aid in [the university’s] mitigation efforts during the global pandemic.” This year, all new transfer students were required to live off-campus. 

It is unknown at this time whether transfer students will be made to do the same this year, as their acceptances have yet to be sent out.

“COVID-19 de-densification efforts in early 2020 led to a historically high number of students off campus and a historically high number of vacancies on campus,” the email read. “The goal for the 2021-2022 academic year is to return to pre-COVID-19 occupancy rates within our residence halls, resulting in a need for our traditional number of student staff members within the halls.”

The email emphasized that these anticipated housing plans may change to meet the university’s needs, should conditions require such an operational adjustment.