Many students on campus are skeptical of the way the process for housing selection works. Often students think it isn’t fair or that they are being cheated in some way. I have to disagree with this statement. I think that housing selection is completely fair; it just doesn’t work out in everyone’s favor each year.
Also, there is not an issue as to whether or not a student will have a place to live; they simply might not get their first choice. If everyone always got their first choice for things in life, it would not be as interesting.
The way that housing selections works is by random lottery number. I don’t know how the selection could be any fairer than that. There seems to be no other way to accomplish housing selection to me.
Ellen Engh, from Residence Life also agrees. “I believe that the process for housing selection is fair. Many universities use a random lottery system and we provide students with a variety of options, such as Living-Learning Communities, traditional residence halls, and the Woods apartment complex,” Engh said.
After students receive their number, they attend the housing selection event, and wait for it to be their turn to choose a room. If a student’s preferred roommate has a lower lottery number than they do, they can choose to use the roommate’s number that is lower to choose the room.
The lottery selection is fair in my opinion because no one personally chooses what numbers to give the students. It is simply randomly generated. I do think housing selection is annoying at times, but it isn’t unfair. Sure, it’s awful to look your name up on the housing selection list and see your name next to a really big number, but at least you know that the number wasn’t given to you for a specific reason.
There have also been rumors going around that seniors were going to have to live on campus as well, but according to Engh, this rumor is false. “I honestly have not heard this rumor this year, however, these rumors always begin close to housing selection. To my knowledge this rumor is not true. We are a three-year residency school. However, even seniors must fill out the Off-Campus Petition,” Engh said. This allows students to live off campus.
There are plenty of places for students to live on campus. And yes, the Woods does count as on campus, and although for many students the Woods is their last choice, the apartment complex is still available, and works fine if you handle it right.
Another option for housing is Greek life. Students that are Greek are able to live in their respective houses, so if housing selection isn’t for you, going Greek is always an option to try. Also, traditional housing and living learning communities are also available. Granted, many of the residence halls are freshmen-only, there are still the new halls that are upper-classmen residence halls.
You may not get the perfect placement for housing, but if you are one of the students who dislikes the process, there are other options.