Resolved to reinvent student housing at Colby, trustees in September approved the construction of a $6.7-million, 107-unit apartment complex specifically for seniors. The decision to proceed with the construction--provided the necessary funds are raised--followed months of research and discussion about the role seniors should play in the life of the campus and whether the College should require seniors to live among underclassmen in traditional residence halls. The Task Force on Residential Life, commissioned by the trustees last December, reported that the growing number of seniors opting to live off campus, combined with the numbers of juniors who are studying away from Colby, was creating a leadership vacuum and weakening Colby's traditional mission as a residential college. The panel recommended that Colby require all but a handful of students to live on campus but acknowledged that existing housing options were not sufficient to achieve this. It suggested that the College build a residence that would provide greater privacy, independence and autonomy for seniors. "[T]he number of additional spaces [100] we propose is meant to supplant the approximate number of seniors who have lived off campus in recent years and would be off campus in the future if no additional spaces are built," the task force report said. The apartments will include private bathrooms and kitchenettes, the latter a response to seniors' expressed interest in preparing their own meals. Governance of the new complex will be in the hands of the residents to allow maximum autonomy. At the same time, Colby is engaged in a major renovation of other residence halls. By the time the project is finished, every senior will be guaranteed a single room on campus. Although a few students protested that the decision to offer exclusive housing to seniors contradicted the College's rationale for rejecting multicultural housing two years ago, advocates for the apartments--including the Echo--maintained that since all students eventually will be seniors, the new housing option isn't discriminatory. Residents will be selected by lottery. If funding is secured, the apartments, to be located on the wooded hillside behind The Heights, are expected to be completed in time for the 1999-2000 academic year.