page_title: Housing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
section_title: New Vassar
hierarchical_section_title: Housing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology / Undergraduate dorms / New Vassar
caption_attribution_description: English: Ongoing construction for the New Vassar dormitory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Taken from Building 37 in May 2019. HDR photo created from 3 exposures.
context_page_description: Housing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology consists of eleven undergraduate dormitories and nine graduate dorms. All undergraduate students are required to live in an MIT residence during their first year of study. Undergraduate dorms are usually divided into suites or floors, and usually have Graduate Resident Assistants, graduate students living among the undergraduates who help support student morale and social activities. Many MIT undergraduate dorms are known for their distinctive student cultures and traditions.
  Both undergraduate and graduate dorms have a resident Head of House, usually a member of the MIT faculty, living in a special apartment suite within the building. Some larger dorms have multiple Heads of House, each responsible for a section of the building, who consult together on building-wide issues.
  McCormick Hall is a women-only dorm; all other dorms are coeducational. Eastgate and Westgate are designated for graduate student family housing, and all other dorms are reserved for single students.
context_section_description: New Vassar, sometimes referred to as West Garage, is a new dormitory under construction as of mid-2020. The building is located at 189 Vassar Street, the site of a former parking facility named West Garage. The dorm was approved in December 2017, and construction commenced with the demolition of the garage in January 2018. The new dormitory is scheduled to open in late 2020 with a capacity of 450 residents.
  On February 28, 2019, an accident at the construction site killed one worker and injured two others. Evidence suggests that a material collapse from an upper floor fell down on top of the three workers.
  MIT portrays New Vassar as a "living-learning community" that helps students grow both academically and personally. Dorm amenities, including a dining hall, a communal kitchen, a courtyard, a makerspace, and group study lounges, were chosen to promote social engagement. The building's design also prioritized environmental sustainability, targeting a LEED Gold certification.
  However, MIT students have criticized the design process for New Vassar as "a history of broken promises", with valuable student feedback "destroyed by top-down administrative backtracking". Early in the design stage for New Vassar, MIT administrators sought student input to articulate a set of guiding principles for future dorms, making mutually acceptable compromise between student well-being and administrative needs. Later, administrators unilaterally reversed several decisions without student approval. The incident drew heavy criticism of MIT's leadership and decision-making process, with extensive student feedback and cooperation regularly being overturned with "vague appeals" to statistical data.
caption: New Vassar construction site, May 2019
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