When students enter the housing lottery this year, they will notice some significant changes to the pecking order in certain rounds.

In an effort to ensure housing for underclassmen, the Office of Residential Life approved a revised selection system designed to draw juniors and seniors away from the South 40 and into residences on the North Side of campus and off-campus.

The second and third rounds of the lottery, which fill the North Side locations and the South 40, respectively, will undergo the most significant change. Students in search of apartments in Millbrook, Loop Lofts, Greenway, Rosedale, U-Drive and suites in the Village or Lopata House will select in the second round using their randomly assigned lottery numbers.

The second round will also fill Village East, a new 152-bed apartment complex with double beds and four-person suites scheduled to open in the fall.

Higher priority will be given to students who have lived in the Residential Life system the longest.

Next, in the third round, the lottery will progress in reverse order, giving rising sophomores top priority on the South 40 and then allowing remaining upperclassmen to fill vacant rooms.

In modifying the selection process, Residential Life sought to encourage underclassmen to remain involved with their residential colleges on the South 40 and to help juniors and seniors secure more independent housing on the other side of campus.

In collaboration with a student task force, the change was made to “give priority to the students who we felt belonged living on the South 40,” said Cheryl Stephens, associate director of Residential Life. “The seniority of your lottery number stays the same, but the South 40 is a reverse lottery.”

The new wrinkle to the lottery comes in anticipation of the housing shuffle that will occur next fall with the opening of more upperclassmen housing on- and off-campus and the closing and impending demolition of Umrath dormitory, a traditional residence hall for freshmen on the South 40.

Additionally, the current sophomores, who make up the largest Washington University class in history, will add to the demand for non-South 40 housing.

Although most upperclassmen do not want to live on the South 40, the lottery in the past has allowed juniors and seniors-typically with the best lottery numbers-to reserve spots there, as backups in the event that their first-choice residences fall through. Meanwhile, younger students who wanted housing on the South 40 would often have to wait for their first choices to open.

“People are waiting for that perfect space, so they accept something on the 40 when they really want to end up somewhere else. It’s a trickle down,” said Stephens of the housing logjam that occurred as a result of the lottery in past years.

Stevens added that the new plan, which was presented to both Student Union and CS40, faced little student opposition.

Upperclassmen “who really want to be on the South 40 have expressed concern. I would tell them to take advantage of the Residential College lottery,” said Stephens.

Petitions for the Residential College option are due March 3, followed by a lottery on March 24.

A final incentive for upperclassmen to live off the South 40 comes in the form of an expanded “homestead” system, which will allow students already living in University-owned off-campus apartments the option to remain in the same apartment for the following year.

While in the past all occupants would have to remain in the apartment to be assured the same housing, now Residential Life only requires one occupant to remain from year to year.

Michael Baill, a junior who currently lives in a University-owned apartment on Kingsbury, will take advantage of the homestead option for his senior year, in part because of what he considers an ideal location.

“There’s no way I’d live on campus,” said Baill, who secured his apartment last year after being denied space in Millbrook.

He said he does not foresee the revised lottery system adversely affecting upperclassmen.

“Almost all of my junior friends are in Millbrook or Greenway or in apartments off-campus,” said Baill.

Privacy and independence are the main factors sophomore Ashley Johnson said are driving her towards Village Bloc housing and away from the South 40, where she has lived for almost two years. “I think it’s a little awkward to live on the 40 with freshmen when you’re a junior,” said Johnson.

Popularity: 1% [?]

 Print This Post

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 at 12:00 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.