During its annual lottery earlier this month, the Office of Residential Life and Learning (ResLife) was able to fully meet students' demand for on-campus housing for next year.
Despite a few hiccups, ResLife Director Yolanda King said that the lottery, which ran from March 3-5 in the Gantcher Center, went largely as planned and saw participation from around 1,300 undergraduates.
According to King, a higher than usual number of seniors opting to live in off-campus housing facilitated the process.
Most housing trends remained steady during the lottery, but King noted that there was an increase in applications for healthy living and for Richardson House, an all-female dorm.
In keeping with past patterns, West, Carmichael and Miller Halls went fastest. King said these dorms are popular in part because of their proximity to academic buildings.
Freshman Lou Tamposi was surprised that he and his friends were able to get a quad in West Hall with what they thought would be an inadequate average.
"I though I was going to get a double, but a friend called and said, 'There are three quads in West; want to try and get one?'" Tamposi said. "We managed to get one, and the people behind us had an average of 2440 and got one."
Freshman Katrina Knisely opted to live in Richardson House, which she felt was popular because of its atmosphere and central location.
"My roommate and I wanted to live uphill, but the person ahead of us took the last uphill room, in Carmichael," she said. "We wanted to be close to uphill, and Richardson was sort of between up- and downhill."
Before the lottery, inclement weather and a communication glitch complicated the process for ResLife staffers and for students.
In particular, since class was canceled the day before the lottery began, ResLife workers extended the deadline for applications to live in Wren Hall. They also lost a day of preparation time.
Meanwhile, a mix-up created confusion for many sophomores this year, who reported that the first time they received an e-mail about when they should come to Gantcher to select a room was around two hours after the lottery had begun on the afternoon of March 3.
Associate Bursar for Operations Jim Moodie, who works on the technological aspects of the lottery, said that an e-mail about lottery times was sent out to sophomores, juniors and returning seniors on Feb. 27. The Daily saw a copy of a confirmation message that indicated the e-mail had been sent to over 3,800 students then.
According to Moodie, ResLife asked that the message be sent. He forwarded that request to a technology team in Dowling Hall, which then generated a distribution list. An administrative staffer then sent the e-mail, he said.
Still, some sophomores surveyed by the Daily said they did not receive the Feb. 27 e-mail about the lottery.
As a result, some had to scramble to make their times after receiving an e-mail on March 3 from Student Services. That e-mail, which went to all undergraduates who had received a lottery number, at one point inaccurately listed the dates of the selection process.
"I only found out the day of," sophomore Laila Gudrais said. "It was a little chaotic, as I was at work and had to cancel [my shift]. It was the typical experience with the housing lottery."
In response to growing demand, next year ResLife will make changes to the lottery process to streamline healthy-living placements.
This year, ResLife initially expected to fit all healthy-living students in Carmichael Hall and in the house at 45 Sawyer Ave. But due to an unexpected volume of applications, ResLife made part of Hodgdon Hall healthy living as well.
Housing for next year will cost $5,564 for multiple-occupancy rooms and $6,064 for singles. Those rates are each up $136 from this year's.
ResLife publishes the fees on the housing agreements, which students generally first see at the lottery.
The office is unable to advertise costs sooner because the trustees approve them when they meet in February, right before the room selection process takes place.
