Looking towards next year, the school plans to reopen Hathaway, making it the fourth girls dorm on campus.

As students and teachers began to make plans for roommates, proctorship, and dorm assignments for the 2023-2024 school year, the need to reopen the previously closed dorm arose.

Historically, Hathaway House has always been one of the smaller dorms on campus. For decades, the dorm has switched between housing boys, girls, and even was used as a quarantine space during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Three year junior Betsy Gaudreau, explained that she looks forward to the experience of getting to live in a smaller dorm.

“Since there are only going to be 12 girls living in Hathaway next year I feel like everyone will be closer and it will feel more like a home than the bigger dorms on campus,” she said.

Since coming to Williston her freshman year, Betsy has lived in all the other girls dorms on campus. She lived in Wold House her freshman year, Memorial Hall East as a sophomore, and currently resides in the Emily McFadon Vincent House.

Betsy also noted that the location of the dorm will make the gym more accessible.

“I really like to lift and run in my free time, so I am really looking forward to living so close to the athletic center,”  she said.

Josh Rilla, an English teacher and Head Dorm Parent of Hathaway House explained that the location and size makes the dorm a unique place to live.

“Its location across from the gym makes it unique in that it may draw more athletes than other dorms,” he said. “It also has a history of housing studious and independent folks since it is smaller than most dorms and composed of singles. I also hope that, because of its size, students will have the chance to make life-long friends with everyone in the building rather than just a handful of hall mates.”

Hathaway plans to house 12 girls next year, allowing each member of the dorm to have their own room. On Tuesday, May 9, the deans coordinated a singles lottery. This was a fair way of making sure everyone got the same opportunity to live where they want next school year. Similarly to past years, students with the longest seniority got the first pick.

Since moving students out of Hathaway in the Spring of 2022, the dorm has received many new renovations.

David Koritkoski, Williston’s Dean of Students, explained that the school has done a lot to make Hathaway a place  students to live.

“The school has put a lot of time and money into renovating it,” he said. “There has been a lot of really good and exciting work done which makes it very exciting to have people back down there.”

Some of the renovations include new flooring and carpeting, updated card access for all the doors, and new fixtures in the bathroom. There is also a newly paved parking lot.

Daliah Elvin, a second-year boarder from Chapel Hill, N.C., explained that the renovations were impressive.

“I had never been inside Hathaway until recently, so the state of the rooms and hallways was a bit surprising,” she explained. “I had heard it was not very nice and was super outdated; however, the rooms are actually quite nice and aside from a small bathroom I think it will be a very nice living space for next year.”

Daliah also looks forward to the opportunity to have her own space next year.

“I’m very excited for Hathaway because I think that this is an opportunity to make a special community of tight knit girls while also being able to have space and be independent,” she said. “Also, I am excited to have a single because it will be nice for my senior year to be able to focus more and have my own schedule without worrying about how it affects someone else.”

Koritkoski, who was a dorm parent in Hathaway from 2008-2012, echoes Daliah by saying he is hopeful for next year because “it has been a very vibrant and exciting dorm for many years.”

Rilla also explained that when students who are planning to live in the space next year came to check it out, he became eager for the dorm to become occupied again.

“I got excited when students recently came to tour Hathaway,” he said. “I overheard people making plans for where they would place their beds and hang posters. The dorm has been so empty that the idea of so much creativity and personality filling those rooms made me genuinely excited. I also am looking forward to the impact it will have on my kids who are two years old and six months old. My two year old was running around during the Open House showing off to the students already.”