Sophomores in Ford Hall? Upon arriving to campus this fall, some noticeable changes had been made to the dorms, and a long-standing policy had been upended.

Ford Hall was built 102 years ago as of this fall, 2018 and for over 20 years it has been open exclusively to upperclassmen. Ford has always been used as a boys’ dorm. Starting this year, Ford changed, and for the first time, began to house sophomores.

In the past few years, John Wright was the freshman boys’ dorm; it is now predominantly inhabited by upperclassman boys.

“I just don’t understand why it’s not a senior privilege or an upperclassman privilege anymore,” said Will Strout, junior Ford resident. He described the camaraderie in Ford this year as “very weird.”

The Willistonian spoke to Chris Park 21′ a resident of Ford Hall. He admitted, “Yeah, at first I was very surprised,” when told he’d be living in Ford as a sophomore.

Chris spoke of the past nature of the dorm and why he thinks they may have switched it.

“I heard they were switching it up a little bit, because I know that in the past, it got a little wild.” Chris mentioned “Frat Hall,” a nickname earned by years of rowdy senior residents.

Thomas Thibault ’19 said the new structuring has created isolated groups within the dorm.

“It’s more cliquey” said Thomas, senior and two-year Ford resident. “We have a lot less of a whole community; we still have a lot of friend groups, but they are all just a lot more separate.” [Ed Note: Thomas is a Managing Editor of The Willistonian.]

The Willistonian spoke with Mr. Koritkoski, the Assistant Dean of Students, to shed light on these changes.

“There simply weren’t enough beds to have one dorm be a junior and senior dorm and have the other be a 10th grader dorm” said Koritkoski. “So, you know, really the only way to make it work was to have Ford and John Wright mirror each other.”