Ian OrlandResidential Life has made two major changes to the housing selection process this year in order to streamline and fix previous problems in the old system. The changes include decreasing the number of petition rounds from three to two and increasing the advance payment from $250 to $450. The changes will affect current residents applying for housing next year.
In previous years, Residential Life included substance-free housing; Small Houses 9 and 10; and two, three, and eight-person suites in one round while Millbrook, Rosedale, Greenway, and University apartments were distributed in another round. All of these housing options will be included in Round 1 this year, with petitions due March 20. Round 2 will be for spaces in four and six-person suites, along with any unassigned four person suites in Small Group Housing. Petitions for the second round are due March 28.
Rhonda Kiely, assistant director of Residential Life in charge of room assignments, said that reducing the number of petition rounds shortens the overall process and relieves students from the anxiety of waiting too long for their acceptances.
The second significant change is an increase in the advance payment. Kiely noted that the advance payment is not a deposit or down payment, but rather a portion of your overall housing fee which Residential Life requests in advance. This is the first increase in the advance payment in over 15 years.
As in past years, students will lose the advance payment if they cancel their housing contracts prior to moving in. However, Residential Life anticipates that this will be less of a problem this year because the deadlines for housing selections have been moved back. This gives students more time to decide whether to live off-campus, preventing them from having to pay in advance in case they can’t find off-campus housing.
For example, Residential Life’s room selection process will occur much later than Parkview Properties’ apartments. Unlike past years, though, students will not have to issue the advance payment before petitioning. Thus, if students turn in a petition in the first round and are not granted the housing they want, they can drop out of the process without being penalized with a fee.
The higher advance payment also is meant to act as a deterrent to those who are thinking of eventually canceling their housing contracts if their petition is granted.
“Cancellations affect more than just the students who cancel,” said Residential Life Intern Duane Westhoff. “Because they take up space, other people who could have gotten that room are delayed and sometimes forced to move into less desirable housing options.”
Kiely commented that these two changes were about “giving students the ability to make a more informed choice about housing.”
Another benefit to pushing back the due dates for housing is that it places Residential Life’s selection process in line with similar deadlines for students choosing to live in fraternities. In previous years, fraternities had just finished pledging new members when housing petitions were due, placing members in difficult positions when choosing whether to live in a fraternity house or on campus.
There have been no changes made to the current lottery system or petition process. Each student will receive a random lottery number based on their class level and period of time they have lived in Residential Life housing. Students interested in petitioning for housing will form a group and rank their choices on a form. The lottery numbers of those in the group will be averaged, with spaces assigned to petitions starting with the lowest number.
Cheryl Stephens, an RCD, emphasized that the changes to the system are not very large and should not pose too many problems for students.
“The adjustments from last year to this year are definitely slight modifications. However, a lot of time and energy went into them,” said Stephens. “I can’t really comment on the future-we’ll assess after this year and decide where we go from here.”
Residential Life does not anticipate any significant new problems arising from the changes made this year because they should not make a huge impact on where students end up living. In fact, they foresee that streamlining the process will reduce confusion and present better opportunities for students to find the type of housing that they seek.