The Office of Residential Life and Housing Services announced the postponing of the construction project of Carlyle Tower 1 in an email to residents last week.

The email said the university has to review the construction project further before proceeding. Matt Nagel, Director of Public Affairs at NYU, explained that the university no longer has the Carlyle project at the top of its to-do list.

“The university has shifted its priorities and the Carlyle project was delayed indefinitely,” Nagel said. “The residents have been notified that they will not have to move locations this academic year and can stay in their rooms.”

GLS sophomore Anna Ferkingstad had selected to live at Carlyle Tower 1 with the understanding that she would have to move out for the second semester because of the construction project. Ferkingstad was hoping to petition out of NYU Housing second semester to move off campus and had begun making plans for off campus housing alternatives for the spring.

“I had no intention of remaining in the Carlyle dorm through this school year,” Ferkingstad said. “Had the circumstances been different — such as the tower remaining open the whole year — I would have made alternate housing arrangements.”

While the NYU Housing Department has not explicitly told the residents that they now have to stay at Carlyle Tower 1 for the second semester, students who want to move out may have to petition out of NYU Housing.

“From what I have gathered, petitioning out of NYU Housing is not an easy process and I was hoping that my situation in relation to [the] Carlyle construction project would help me,” Ferkingstad said. “Now that the project is postponed, I am not sure how housing will respond to my petition.”

Since housing is binding for the whole year, NYU only allows students to withdraw from housing in the event of “extraordinary and unforeseen circumstance” — a category the change of Carlyle plans would presumably fall under. If the petition is rejected, students are required to continue to cover the remaining costs for the rest of the year.

For students who were planning on moving out of Tower 1 for the spring, the decision to keep it open may affect whichever residents who have already sought out alternative living arrangements.

Phoebe Walsh, Gallatin sophomore and Carlyle Tower 1 resident, said the situation results in a win-win for Tower 1 residents.

“Anyone who was placed in the tower or mistakenly chose the tower will no longer have to move to another residence hall at the end of the semester,” Walsh said. “Housing will still honor their promise to give Tower 1 priority housing selection for next school year.”

The residents of Carlyle Tower 1 who will be studying abroad in the second semester or graduating at the end of the first semester will be unaffected by the postponement.

For the residents that are neither studying abroad nor graduating at the end of the first semester, there has been no notification thus far by NYU Housing of the postponement majorly affecting the residents within the next couple of months.

Email Greta Chevance at [email protected].