The Office of Residential Life will implement a revised room selection process this year, cutting the number of rounds in the housing lottery from nine to three.
The first round will cover apartment spaces, including Millbrook, Rosedale, Greenway and University Drive. The second round will be for specialty locations: two-, three- and eight-person suites, and substance free housing. Substance free rooms for upperclassmen will be available in all of Rutledge residence hall and the second floor of Shepley. The final round, which Residential Life expects to include the most students, will cover general spaces, including four- and six-person suites, Eliot, small houses nine and 10, and rooms remaining in Small Group Housing (SGH) after selected groups have been assigned rooms.
Last year, many students, particularly sophomores with high lottery numbers, complained that the nine-round system was too complex. Several groups faced frequent rejections, and those who did receive assignments in earlier rounds would have to choose whether to accept it or to reject it, in hopes of receiving a more favorable assignment in a later round.
“I think that the housing selection process was unnecessarily complicated last year,” said sophomore Rachel Flynn. “Any efforts that Residential Life is taking to reduce the stress and confusion that it puts on everyone involved is a step in the right direction.”
Rob Wild, assistant director of Residential Life, said, “[Residential Life] made some big changes last year as a result of some complaints we received about the process with residential colleges being unfair.So by trying to increase fairness by imposing residential colleges on all buildings, we unintentionally made the process more complex.”
Last year’s process was also plagued by an increase in the number of students wanting to live on-campus. At the beginning of this fall, nearly 4,000 students were living in university housing, largely due to a significant rise in upcoming-juniors wishing to live on the South Forty.
Residential Life was still able to find assignments for all students, but only after last minute decisions to not tear down Eliot and to renovate the old fraternity houses.
Wild said that this year virtually all students should receive their assignments by the end of the process in March, largely because Residential Life is able to factor in these new locations – Eliot and Small Houses 9 and 10 – at the beginning of
the process.
The new process
Prior to the process beginning, all students currently living in university housing will receive a lottery number. The numbers are randomly assigned by a computer, giving students lower numbers based on how long they have lived on campus. Students who have moved off campus will not receive a number. Transfer students and those who have lived off-campus as part of a university approved program, such as studying abroad, will be assigned a number in line with other members of their class level.
In addition to reducing the number of rounds in the system, Residential Life has changed the method by which people must register for the process. Last year, students were required to turn in a housing application and payment only after they had been assigned a space. This year, contracts will be collected before the process begins.
Students who want to live in university housing must submit a room and board application, along with a $250 advance payment, by February 26. The payment goes toward one’s housing bills, with $125 being taken off each semester.
By signing the application, a student agrees to accept whatever room Residential Life assigns, and Residential Life agrees to guarantee housing to that student. If an applicant later chooses to live elsewhere, Residential Life will not return the advance payment.
During each round, groups of students must turn in petitions including a complete list of all students wanting to live with the group. For example, a petition for a four-person suite must include four applicants. On the petition, the students rank all of the housing options in order of their preference for one of the three rounds.
Each group is given a lottery number based on the average of each of its members’ numbers, and groups will be assigned beginning with those that have the lowest numbers. When Residential Life comes to a group, it will give the group an assignment in the most-preferred location, according to the ranking provided on the petition, of the remaining rooms.
If any member of the group petitioning chooses to live elsewhere, excluding university-approved absences, the entire group will loose their assignment.
Before the process begins, Residential Life will be holding several informational sessions to explain the process to students. Wild encourages all students to attend one of the meetings, so they can have a complete understanding of the process before submitting an application.
Independent rounds
Students groups can apply to live together in SGH during an independent housing round in February.
The general housing process will also follow another independent round limited to current residents of William Greenleaf Eliot (WGE) and Brookings Residential Colleges. Current residents of WGE and Brookings will have the option to apply to live in Shepley or Wheeler and Lien, respectively. Fifty percent of the available rooms in these dormitories will be assigned through this process, which will give students a separate lottery number, independent of one’s class level.
Unlike last year, when 75 percent of the rooms on the South 40 were assigned in this round, groups applying for housing in the residential college round must apply in groups of four current residents. Previously, only three of the applicants per group had to be current residents of the college to which they were applying.
Contact Bernell at [email protected]