By Ashlyn Wiebalck, News Correspondent

Months before Northeastern will begin requiring the sophomore class to live on campus, university officials were unclear about specific plans to create more on-campus housing.

Starting with this year’s freshman class, Northeastern requires all students to remain in on campus housing for their first two years. The change, made to improve relations with communities surrounding the university, will cause demand for on-campus housing to rise next year.

In the past, Northeastern has made it mandatory for only freshmen to live on campus, and has allowed students to live off campus starting their sophomore year. The new two year requirement may limit accommodations for students and place further strain on current housing options. John Tobin, vice president for city and community affairs, said the change is for the benefit of students.

“We have a lot of young people that it’s their first time away from home, and in our buildings, dorms and beds that we lease, we have [Resident Assistants], and there are services such as the [Northeastern Division of Public Safety], which supplements the Boston Police Department,” Tobin said, “It’s really for safety, security, and helping to ease our younger students into city life.”

To help accommodate the inevitably higher number of students living on campus, Northeastern is working toward increasing the amount of bed spaces it owns and leases, though Tobin would not comment specifically. For the past seven months, Northeastern officials have been meeting internally to draw out an Institutional Master Plan (IMP) laying out further building developments. Among the discussed plans is a proposed building project next to the YMCA that would create 720 new beds.

Tobin said the university is seeking input from surrounding communities to inform the IMP.

“We’re ready at some point to go out and talk to our neighbors about what our vision is for Northeastern, both here on campus and in adjoining neighborhoods,” he said. “Along those lines come plans for on campus, on how we program buildings and dorms. These plans are very much going to be a large part of the conversation as we move forward in the next 10 or 11 months.”

Tobin said he hopes implementation of the new plan will go smoothly for the university and students alike, but would not comment further on plans to accommodate the increased housing demand next year.

“We want it to be a seamless transition for the students,” he said.

Despite the benefits, some students are still hesitant about the new policy, and feel as if housing limitations should continue to apply only to freshmen.

“I think the new requirement is not very beneficial because there are students that want to live off campus in their own apartments so they can have more freedom. When you live on campus, you’re more restricted,” said freshman Eric Lee, a civil engineering major.

The change in housing rules is intended to increase safety and supervision of students in their first two years at school, Tobin said. Unlike many off-campus apartments, students in university housing are under the school’s jurisdiction and are more centralized around the school’s residential resources.

“It’s only for the first year that it’s important to stay on campus and have that dorm experience,” said Alex Hersh, a freshman computer engineering major. “But for my second year I would prefer to do my own thing. Just to be able to have the apartment I want in the area I want, and the people I want to live with really.”

While some of this year’s freshmen have expressed concerns over the policy, some upperclassmen see a positive side to this change.

“I actually think it’ll be a positive change, and that it’ll help keep the community together. I definitely know that not living in a dorm my second year, it’s a little strange,” said Alexa Torres, a sophomore history major living off campus. “I feel a little disconnected at times, although the school does do a good job at having certain services like an off-campus newsletter. Things ended up working out well for me, but if I had to be on campus for one more year, I think it would have been nice.”