Columbia will not renew its lease with Dwight Lofts, the residence hall that houses first-year and transfer students, after Spring 2026, college officials confirmed to the Chronicle. The move will leave the college operating two residence halls beginning in Fall 2026.
The Chronicle previously reported in December that the college would end its lease at The Arc at Old Colony after the spring semester. Beginning next fall, students will be housed at 30 East Balbo and the University Center at 525 S. State St., which Columbia shares with DePaul University and Roosevelt University.
“Both properties operated under expiring master leases, which required the college to assume full financial responsibility for unoccupied bed spaces,” Lambrini Lukidis, Associate Vice President of Strategic Communications and External Relations, told the Chronicle in an email. “The college has determined that entering into new long-term lease commitments would not be a responsible financial strategy.”
In Fall 2025, 1,426 students lived on campus, down about 25% from Fall 2021, when roughly 2,000 students lived in Columbia-affiliated housing, according to college data. During that same period, overall enrollment declined from 6,736 to 4,461.
“Adjusting our housing footprint ensures the college maintains flexibility while responding to present demand,” Lukidis said.
Emmanuel Lalande, Senior Vice President of Enrollment Strategy and Student Success, told residents in an email on Friday, Feb. 20 that the college expects to meet demand at 30 East and the University Center.
In order to accommodate students in the remaining dorms, the college will no longer offer designated floors for honors students and students 21 and older, Columbia’s Housing and Residential Experience said in a separate email to residents. It also is suspending the option of roommate groups, which allowed students to choose roommates when applying for housing.
Gender-inclusive and general housing will still be available.
First-year illustration major Jayla Griggs said she and her roommates found the news “nervous and sad.”
“The only reason I planned to even stay in the honors program was its housing benefits,” Griggs said. “When I spoke to other people currently living at the Dwight, they also shared my anxiety.”
Griggs said the prospect of finding new roommates due to roommate groups no longer being an option is “beyond stressful.”
“Once again, I feel lied to and cheated out of the college experience I was promised when I toured,” Griggs said in an email to the Chronicle. “This entire ordeal has left me and other Dwight dwellers anxious and nervous about our housing status in the years to come.”
During a faculty town hall on Feb. 18, Suzanne McBride, Interim Senior Vice President and Provost, said the housing changes are part of a broader effort to reduce expenses without cutting personnel.
“In the back of my mind, I’m always thinking about what reductions we can make that don’t touch people. That’s the last thing we want to do,” McBride said. “We have four dorms running right now. We have more than a few hundred beds that we pay for that we don’t use. That’s the bottom line, so we’re working on those contracts.”
McBride said the college is also reviewing other contractual obligations, including agreements with consultants, though she noted that ending contracts can come with financial penalties.
“I’m not a contract expert, so I don’t know how many we have or how many we can get rid of, and more importantly, especially without paying penalties,” she said. “So those are all the things we’re doing.”
In 2015, the college renewed its lease with Dwight Lofts for 11 years. The 771-bed student housing property was later purchased by Harrison Street Real Estate Capital for $105 million. The Arc is owned by DWS, a unit of Deutsche Bank, which purchased the property from a joint venture in 2018 for $76.8 million.
The occupancy rate between all four residence halls in Fall 2025 was 66%, Michelle Hunter-Lancaster, Director of Housing and Residential Experience, told the Chronicle in December.
Danika Fitzgerald, a sophomore film and television major, said they were “always suspicious” another residence hall would not be offered after the college told residents in December that it would not renew its lease at The Arc at Old Colony.
“I’m definitely most concerned about not having enough housing for everyone on campus, especially for the students from out of state like myself,” Fitzgerald said. “I don’t have any family in Illinois so I rely on campus housing while I’m here.”
Gabby Mitchell, a senior music business major, said Dwight Lofts and The Arc offered “the best accommodations” during her time at the college.
“Securing housing every year has always been a struggle for both myself and other people I have talked to who still live on campus,” Mitchell said in an email. “I’m concerned with how Columbia is going to move forward with housing its students when two buildings are no longer available.”
Copy edited by Katie Peters
