An increase in the number of freshmen has led to shortages of desks in some classrooms.

It’s no secret that applications to Riordan have swelled in the past year. The school has gone from receiving 393 applications in 2017 to 487 in 2018, and with this rise comes a rise in class size, and thus, a need for more desks.

The astounding number of incoming freshmen created a desk shortage. Last year, Riordan had one of the largest freshman classes in a very long time, with 211 students.

This year’s freshman class nearly tied the sophomores with 203 students. Desk shortages could continue to be a problem if future freshman classes become larger and larger.

Such an unprecedented increasein students begs the question—what’s changed?

According to Sally O’Connell, a member of the admissions team, “The admissions team is better able to articulate what Riordan is to people and why we’re different than other school.”

The influx of students is not a coincidence—the spirit ofRiordan has been getting through to incoming students better than ever. With this increase in students, however, comes problems. A bigger freshman classcouldpotentiallymeandifficultiesfor current students.

According to Dominic Borrego ’20, “There are a lot more freshmen crowding the cafeteria and clubs.”

In addition, some classes needed more desks to accommodate the larger numbers of freshmen in those classes.

Desks were moved from one class to another to accommodate for more students in some classrooms, which led to students than desks in many rooms, according to many teachers.

An example of this is room 203, English teacher Michael Vezzali-Pascual’s classroom. Vezzali-Pascual ’88 returned to his classroom from summer break and discovered that two of his desks were missing and were replaced with two wooden desks with separate black chairs.

“I always have about 30 desks every year, but the desks are always moved around from classroom to classroom every summer,” he said.

Another classroom with a shortage of desks is room 117, where math teacher Tony Tran ’02 is based.

In some of Tran’s classes, there are many more desks than students, so much so that Tran does not allow his students to sit in the front or back rows. But in other classes, Tran does not have enough desks for everyone.

“I almost didn’t have enough desks at the beginning of the year,” Tran said. “One of my blocks has 31 students when I only have 29 desks. I had to borrow a desk from the lecture hall and almost hope somebody would transfer out to have enough desks for everyone.”

Another classroom affected by the widespread desk shortage is Maren Nymo’s 2B American Sign Language class in room 106, where multiple students will have to sometimes sit on counters in the room if they want to sit down.

“We have (prospective students)a lot in the class, so at least fivepeople have to sit on the counter every day,” said Antonio Roca ’21, a student in Nymo’s class.

While there might be some negative consequences to this new class, a larger student body also means a more diverse and thriving Riordan community.

“Too many freshmen is definitely a good problem to have,” Vezzali- Pascual said.