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University avoids overbooking with new residence

Most expensive residence to date opens its doors

For the fourth time in eight years, McGill has opened the doors to a new residence for incoming first years. With La Citadelle, formerly a Courtyard Marriott Hotel, accommodating an additional 286 new students, McGill will have avoided the problem of residence overflow which has plagued incoming students in years past.

McGill has seen a roughly 12 per cent increase in undergraduate enrolment since 2006.

Last year, 74 students and two floor fellows lived on two floors of the Quality Hotel at Parc and Sherbrooke when numbers of incoming first-years exceeded the capacity of the campus housing system. In 2008, an estimated 100 students were sent to 515 Ste-Catherine, a privately-administered apartment building.

Executive Director of Residences and Student Housing Michael Porritt told The Daily in an email that not having overflow is “not necessarily a good thing – I’d rather be slightly overbooked because some students, for a variety of reasons, do not show up. In past years, we were too overbooked, hence the need for new residence spaces.”

Some student residents have complained about ongoing construction, which Porritt said is wrapping up with “some finishing touches to go.”

Rent at La Citadelle will be McGill’s most expensive: a double room will cost students $1,059 per month, and a single room will cost $1,194.25 per month.

With the residence also comes the launch of the Food Living-Learning Community (FLLC), a group of first-year students who come together to get involved with food politics, cooking, and other food-related activities.