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Second-year history student Kevin Sung works in his double room in Sproul Hall. More students lik

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Last year, Annie Kong’s room in Hedrick Hall was so cramped with three beds and three desks that her roommate had to climb on top of her own desk to reach her bed.

“If you put your arms out on either side, you wouldn’t be able to make a full circle because you’d hit the bunks,” said Kong, a second-year undeclared student.

“My friends from other schools called it ‘the elevator’ because that’s how small they thought it was,” she added.

This year, Kong’s double room has the space to make it more “homey.” She has a shelf for snacks, a TV and enough wall space for posters and pictures.

“(Being in a double) is so much better. It’s more spacious, less claustrophobic. I’d choose being in a double over a triple any day,” Kong said.

Kong resides in one of the 4,504 double rooms available on the Hill this year, which is 138 more double rooms than were available last year.

For the first time since the opening of De Neve Plaza’s Cedar, Dogwood, Evergreen and Fir buildings in 2000, there are more doubles than triples on the Hill.

“We are delighted with the opportunity to provide more doubles this year. The increased doubles provided more students with the accommodation they wanted,” said Associate Director of Housing Angelina Marciano.

This decline in the number of triples is partially due to the re-opening of Sunset Village’s Courtside building and its 460 bed spaces. Courtside was closed for a year mainly to repair water damage.

Also responsible for the decline in the number of triples is that the number of residents on the Hill is lower than what had been projected for this school year.

Housing estimates how many students will enter the residence halls based upon previous patterns in the number of residents. However, the number of students who desire housing may be higher or lower any given year, based upon what students decide to do, said Office of Residential Life Associate Director Jack Gibbons.

Because UCLA guarantees housing to all entering freshmen for two years and to all transfer students for one year, those who want housing will receive it, regardless of whether the number of students who apply is higher than expected.

As a result, the number of triples change to meet that guarantee.

Sometimes this guarantee can result in severe overcrowding, as what occurred two years ago, when so many students applied for housing that some were placed in the residence hall study lounges.

If the enrollment projection for new first-year students, transfer students and returning second-year students remains constant, the number of double rooms provided next year should remain similar to the number provided this year, Marciano said.

The construction of three new residence halls, Rieber North and West and Hedrick North, will result in an estimated 9,030 more spaces for students by the 2005 fall quarter.

Of these, 15 percent are projected to be triples, 78 percent doubles and 7 percent singles.

These three buildings are part of the Housing Administration’s 10-year master plan in which it hopes to guarantee housing to all incoming freshmen for four years and to all transfer students for two years while reducing the number of triples.

“As a result of the new guarantee, we know we must increase the number of beds available. Simultaneously, we must provide the type of accommodations that students prefer,” Gibbons said.

The new single and double rooms were planned with the expectation that the upper classmen eligible for the new guarantee would prefer accommodations with more privacy.

Whether freshmen or sophomores would be allowed to apply for the one-bedroom suites is still unknown, as Housing and ORL have not determined an assignment policy for the new buildings.

It is unlikely that the new buildings will be occupied exclusively by upper division students, Gibbons said.

It is not certain whether Hedrick North will house upper division students upon its completion in January 2005, or whether the extra rooms will first be utilized to “de-densify” the existing residence halls and make more double rooms available.

“Ultimately, we will try to have both, but until then we need to prioritize our resources to see what we will achieve first,” Gibbons said.

Yet the cost of housing may be a large factor in whether students decide to live in the residence halls or not.

The cost of a double room on the Hill with 11 meals per week costs between $1,000 to $1,200 a month, according to the Housing Web site. However, the average cost of an apartment in Westwood is about $500 per month, excluding utilities, food and internet, according to UCLA Community Housing.

Such differences in cost may deter upper division students from choosing to live in the residence halls for their third and fourth years at UCLA.

“The price would partially prevent me from living in the dorms again. I also want to experience the apartment life,” Kong said.

“Dorm life is great, but you want a change, and I don’t think the suites will give me the change I want,” she said.

Some second-year students who wanted that change from the residence halls decided to live in the apartments, rather than in the residence halls.

Though the number of second-year students living in the residence halls this year has not decreased noticeably, the percentage of residence hall returners this year is 3 percent lower than last year, Marciano said.

Second-year English and business-economics student Jason Choi decided to live in an apartment because he is planning to study abroad during winter and spring quarters.

“I don’t regret living in the apartments. I like the feeling of independence because I make my own payments on rent and utilities, and I have to cook for myself,” Choi said.

Choi’s second-year undeclared roommate Jake Lee is also pleased with the independence that comes with the apartments.

“It’s more comfortable. I get my own bathroom, my own kitchen, and I can do whatever I want,” Lee said.

“The crowdedness in the dorms is okay, but I like the quietness around here in the apartment. It’s easier to study and just relax,” Lee said.

Preliminary results from Housing surveys suggest that the cost of room and board, construction impacts and a desire to move into a more private apartment setting are the main reasons why some second-year students choose not to return to the residence halls, Marciano said.

“We think the availability of single rooms will be attractive to upper division students. Once construction of Hedrick North, Rieber West, and Rieber North is completed we are confident that the residential living-learning community at UCLA will be the place to be,” Marciano said.