Photo courtesy of Hannah Paige Michels | In the past, students registered for housing in Cintas Center. This year saw a new online-only system take effect.
For the first time, the housing selection process for rising sophomore was done online. Similar to past years, students were randomly assigned lottery numbers to determine the order in which the selections could be made.
Senior Director for Student Affairs Lori Lambert added that the purpose of altering the process this year was to “allow students to see all options, in real time, from wherever they may be when it is time for them to select their space.”
“One of the biggest challenges of the process is not with the housing system, but with the housing inventory,” Lambert said. “With Fenwick suites being mostly groups of six or eight, we know it is difficult when there are no longer suites available that match the size of roommate groups. We try to anticipate the numbers and give students time to break down into smaller groups for other housing options.”
For this reason, the selections began on Friday and did not resume until the following Monday and Tuesday. Because Fenwick almost completely filled up on the first day, the weekend gave students the chance to reconfigure groups.
“Housing was a little stressful, just because I wasn’t sure if my group would be able to get the room we wanted in the building we wanted,” first-year Elizabeth McCarthy said. “However, the actual selection process was super simple and straightforward.” Lambert agreed that the process went well overall.
“We believe the selection process went smoothly and hopefully was less stressful than waiting in a room in Cintas Center with over a hundred people to select a space on a paper roster,” Lambert said. “We will be offering several feedback sessions to collect feedback from residents about their experience with the process. A random sampling of students will be sent an invite to participate in an ‘invite only’ feedback forum next Wednesday. An open forum will be held on Tuesday, April 11, at 2 p.m. in the Musketeer Mezzanine for anyone who wants to provide feedback. We are open to suggestions for improvement, and students can send their feedback (positive and constructive) to me (Lori Lambert) or Kevin Prothero via email.”
Those who have yet to selected housing for next year can still select a room online until Friday. After that time students should contact the Office of Residence Life.
By: Azl Saeed ~Staff Writer~