Upperclassmen may soon have an easier time finding housing.

ResLife announced there will be more room for upperclassmen to live on-campus in the 2017-2018 academic year due to the completed construction of the first-year residence hall in August 2017, an Oct. 12 email to students stated.

Additionally, ResLife will no longer be housing students at 326 Quarry Hill and at the Sheraton, according to the email.

“As you know, we demolished a set of residence halls, so that took away a lot of on-campus housing . . .it was harder for juniors and seniors to live on campus,” said Joseph Russell, associate director of ResLife.

The announcement was made now to reach students before they commit to off-campus housing, Russell said.

“We know between now and January, students will be looking for housing for next year,” he said.

ResLife wants to make sure students are aware of the availability of space and know they have this option, Russell said.

“So for our current sophomores we’ll likely see a continued residence on campus,” he said.

It wouldn’t be unreasonable to see between 200-300 additional upperclassmen remaining on campus because of open space, Russell said.

“If you’re making a decision to come back to a residence hall, that means you liked that community,” he said. “I’m excited about that because it means living on-campus is a good experience for these people.”

Senior Darnell Holmes said it’s great that there is more space for upperclassmen.

“That would be wonderful [because] they pushed us off campus since they tore down the ‘shoeboxes,’” Holmes said.

The Chittenden-Buckham-Wills dorms, often referred to as “shoeboxes” due to their shape and size, were torn down May 2015.

Before the dorms were demolished, roughly 500 students not required to live on campus, such as juniors, seniors and transfers students, were living in dorms, stated Kim Parker, associate director of administrative services for ResLife, in an Oct. 16 email.

“I wasn’t supposed to be in [the] Living/Learning Center, but I fought for it because I couldn’t live off campus,” Holmes said. “We went to ResLife and it was either let us [live] on campus or we can’t come back [to UVM].”

The new vacancy for upperclassmen will be helpful to those who have trouble finding housing, he said.