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Male residents of Johnson dormitory must find another place to live next year as it will replace Knowlton as Northeast Residential Area’s all-female dormitory at the end of this semester, the University of Massachusetts Housing Assignment Office announced.

Residents in affected dorms were notified via mail.

“I think women will be glad to know they have an all female option,” said David Vaillancourt, Associate Director of Residence Life for Assignments and Administration. “This provides women an all-female residence hall since Knowlton is joining the rest of its cluster as a [First Year Experience] hall.”

Next year, nearly all incoming first-year students will be living in freshman housing.

With the change Northeast becomes the fourth residential area on campus to offer First Year Experience (FYE) housing, after Central, Southwest and Orchard Hill.

But this decision will require the male residents of Johnson to relocate next semester.

All students on campus will enter an online room selection that assigns them new places to live based on their priority, according to Vaillancourt. He said Johnson’s male residents can choose from all available options.

But some are happy where they are.

“I was very upset [when I heard of the change],” Brian Kane, a senior Japanese major via e-mail. “I love living in Johnson. It’s quiet, very clean, has a great community and is very close to the Lewis Wellness Center and the Worcester D.C.”

He is staying at UMass another year to complete an additional major in economics.

Though disappointed about having to move, Kane, 21, says he has no problem with all-female or all-male dorms but thinks the idea of changing things around and creating more all-freshmen areas is a bad one.

“I think the whole process is terribly planned and is going to have a negative effect on the Northeast student community,” he said. “I feel the decision is unfair to the current student community in Johnson and to Knowlton’s community as well. Students had no say in this decision and many of us feel we have been cheated out of living in the best dorm on campus.”

He added that if a large group of freshmen live in one building there should be some upperclassmen to be good role models and teach them to refrain from getting rowdy or loud. He said freshmen would not learn to become more mature students and adults in that type of environment.

But it is not just Johnson men who criticize the change.

Virginia Hsia, a sophomore marketing major, said when she heard of the notion she was “not very supportive of it.”

Though she and many of her friends intend to live in North Apartments next year and admits it might make some females more comfortable to live in an all-female dorm she says it comes as a raw deal for some of her male friends.

“Honestly, I don’t find it very fair to the males who like Johnson and have been living here for a long amount of time,” said Hsia, 19. “It’s kind of a tough situation.”

But the administration is adamant about its decision.

“I also think that students will have a better understanding that we are committed to offering the FYE program in a variety of locations on campus,” Vaillancourt said.

The change is part of a large-scale shake-up of Northeast as the Knowlton, Mary Lyon and Crabtree cluster becomes the FYE area of Northeast. Knowlton will now be co-ed. Vaillancourt was unsure as to how long Knowlton has been designated as all female but said it has been that way since he arrived at UMass in 1999.

Vaillancourt says the 2-in-20 Program – one floor of 40 students that acts as an ally to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students – will also be relocated, but he did not know where.

All other dorms in Northeast will go unchanged.

Domenic Poli can be reached at [email protected].