For the 2025-26 academic year, Oberlin College has taken Fairchild House offline, and, on behalf of the Conservatory, Facilities Operations has converted some of its spaces into practice rooms for students. The change, which comes on the heels of increased Conservatory enrollment, is aimed to help stymie overcrowding in Robertson Hall, which houses most practice rooms in the Conservatory. 

The increase in enrollment is due in part to the Conservatory’s new programs, such as Music Theater and Recording Arts and Production. Pre-existing Conservatory programs have also seen a rise in admission.

“When it became clear at the end of the spring that our enrollment was going to be very, very significant, we started working closely with facilities to identify spaces,” Dean of the Conservatory William Quillen said. “They have been great partners here and helped us identify [Fairchild House], did some touch-up painting, et cetera. In addition to the practice rooms on the second floor, the first floor also has some additional rooms for our piano technology program.”

Fairchild House, typically a first-year residence hall and home to the allergen-free dining hall Clarity, was originally scheduled to be taken offline upon the opening of Woodland Hall, Oberlin’s new dormitory on North Campus. Mark Zeno, assistant vice president and dean of Residence Life and Auxiliary Services, confirmed this plan in an email to the Review. He explained that utilizing Fairchild House for practice room space is intended to be a temporary solution to practice room scarcity, and that the building will possibly return to housing students in the future. The Conservatory is also expanding practice spaces outside of Fairchild House.

“We have in Fairchild House 16 rooms,” Associate Dean for Artistic Administration and Operations Michael Straus said. “But we’re also opening up the organ rooms for practice.”

In Robertson Hall, 13 rooms that traditionally belonged exclusively to organists and historical keyboard students are now available on a first-come, first-serve basis for other students during specific hours. Additionally, the building that housed the College bookstore until last year, East Studios, now has an additional four practice rooms, bringing the total number of new practice rooms this academic year to 33. While the consensus of interviewed students regarding additional practice rooms is positive, some students still express issues with the current status of practice room quantity, quality, and etiquette.

“With my instrument needing at least an upright piano and a full-length mirror, [quality practice rooms] do not exist for us unless we claim a particular, large room which should be accommodating to pianists,” double-degree third-year and Voice major Natalia Locilento wrote in a message to the Review. “It has been tougher than ever before to find these practice rooms because of the exponential growth of vocalists in the Conservatory, as both Kohl and [East Studios] do not have enough themselves to accommodate their students.”

The new rooms in Fairchild House were not constructed with acoustics as a top concern: the rooms provide excessive reverb and the electric keyboards fitted to the rooms do not have pedals or piano benches. Additionally, the quick repurposing of the space has sparked concern surrounding Fairchild House’s status and the fate of its former dining hall, Clarity.

“I’m fine with a couple rooms in Fairchild being repurposed, so long as they actually fix the building so the ceilings stop collapsing even after they deem the rooms ‘safe,’ [and that they] also make sure the mold problems are gone,” Conservatory second-year Benjamin Goodwin wrote in a message to the Review. “If practice rooms can be open, then why can’t Clarity be open[?] … Move the stack of desks and mattresses elsewhere.”

The stacks that Goodwin is referring to are piles of furniture that once decorated each dorm room. They now lie unused in the basement of Fairchild House. Fairchild’s present status is uncertain, with half the building solving an overcrowding problem, the other half slated for renovation, and Clarity gutted and combined with Heritage, the Kosher dining hall.

“Our plan and understanding is that this is a one-year plan, a plan for this year, and then we’ll assess in coordination with our partners in facilities, in the dean of students’ office, and in Residential Life,” Quillen said. “To our knowledge, these rooms are available for this year, and in terms of next year and beyond, I’m not certain of the availability.”