The Fate of the Freshmen Guys: Ludlow for Now

Lower East Side, NEW YORK– Will there be a Ludlow next year? President D’Souza set the student body into a frenzy of questions when he announced that the school would be moving. The freshmen guys, however, are now asking a different question: will we, or anyone else, have to live another year on 101 Ludlow Street? Will we yet again be sharing space with the School of Visual Arts and Baruch College?

For a few freshmen, the residential building on the Lower East Side has been the perfect location. They like having their own room and buying cheap groceries at Shopsmart. Some sophomores even chose to return for a second year. But to most, putting up with an all-microwaveable diet and dodging hundreds of roaming drunk people on Delancey Street doesn't constitute ideal living.

The fate of the incoming male students has yet to be officially decided.

“Everything is up in the air,” Nick Swedick, the resident director for the Ludlow building, said. Swedick said that with the school moving, “everything is a waiting game.” Although a lease has not yet been signed, Swedick says that the student development team wants residence to be “focused around the House system. We want more House members living together.”

For Charlie Freeman, another year of Ludlow would be ideal. As a freshman in Bonhoeffer, Charlie is one of the few first year students to live at the Clark St. residence.

“Ludlow is the ideal incubator of a tight sense of community,” Freeman said.  “The sense of community is so much more highly developed than it is at Clark Street.”

Travis Aldrich, a first year Bonhoeffer, said, “[Ludlow] is pretty fun," but he expects to be splitting the rent for an off-campus apartment next semester.

Others also hope to leave Ludlow.  “We can’t cook. The spaces are way too small for what we’re paying. The early guest curfew is annoying,” King's student Prantik Gupta said.

While unsure about the near future of Ludlow, Swedick has expectations about long-term goals for the building.  “For the long term, in my opinion, Ludlow’s not an option," Swedick said.  According to Swedick, the student development team is working hard. "We want to have our own space," he said, "not to rent space, and if we have to rent, it needs to be completely ours.”

Although it has not been finalized, administrative sources say King's will seek to renew their lease with Ludlow for the upcoming school year.