2008 Woodie Awards
ResLife extends housing offers
Derby Cox
Issue date: 5/15/08 Section: News
The Department of Resident Life is offering 200 sophomores another shot at on-campus housing after 90 fewer freshman than expected attended room assignment meetings.
This offer reduced the number of students on the housing waitlist to 1,145. At the beginning of May, the waitlist sat at 1,345, down from last year's 1,362 but still higher than in previous years, Associate Director of Resident Life Jan Davidson said. But even as the waitlist shrank, the number of freshmen requesting to return to on-campus housing increased by more than 300.
It is still too early to predict how large the waitlist will be at the beginning of the fall semester, but Davidson said it may be smaller than last year's 1,565-person first-day-of-classes list because Resident Life might be able to offer housing to more sophomores, who would have top priority when rooms open up during the summer. Last fall's waitlist was the largest since 1980, a symptom of the housing crunch that has kicked seniors and most juniors off the campus and left many students frustrated with the housing process.
"It just seems like ResLife is screwing a lot of people" by shifting them off the campus, said junior microbiology major Julia Collins, who is also a Resident Assistant in Ellicott Hall. It can really change your college experience to live on campus."
And some students are trying anything they can to secure on-campus spots. The number of applications to become a RA is "a lot higher than usual," Collins said. Although many are qualified, "there's a lot of people who are just in it for the on-campus housing," she said.
The 100 males and 100 females who received e-mails will join the 136 sophomores already offered housing. New spots have opened because, like every year, some freshmen signed up for housing and then didn't attend the room assignment meeting. There were also fewer freshman than anticipated accepted this semester who need housing in the fall, Assistant Director Scott Young said. About 150 additional spots are expected to open in July and August because of summer cancellations, a number Davidson called a "conservative estimate."
This offer reduced the number of students on the housing waitlist to 1,145. At the beginning of May, the waitlist sat at 1,345, down from last year's 1,362 but still higher than in previous years, Associate Director of Resident Life Jan Davidson said. But even as the waitlist shrank, the number of freshmen requesting to return to on-campus housing increased by more than 300.
It is still too early to predict how large the waitlist will be at the beginning of the fall semester, but Davidson said it may be smaller than last year's 1,565-person first-day-of-classes list because Resident Life might be able to offer housing to more sophomores, who would have top priority when rooms open up during the summer. Last fall's waitlist was the largest since 1980, a symptom of the housing crunch that has kicked seniors and most juniors off the campus and left many students frustrated with the housing process.
"It just seems like ResLife is screwing a lot of people" by shifting them off the campus, said junior microbiology major Julia Collins, who is also a Resident Assistant in Ellicott Hall. It can really change your college experience to live on campus."
And some students are trying anything they can to secure on-campus spots. The number of applications to become a RA is "a lot higher than usual," Collins said. Although many are qualified, "there's a lot of people who are just in it for the on-campus housing," she said.
The 100 males and 100 females who received e-mails will join the 136 sophomores already offered housing. New spots have opened because, like every year, some freshmen signed up for housing and then didn't attend the room assignment meeting. There were also fewer freshman than anticipated accepted this semester who need housing in the fall, Assistant Director Scott Young said. About 150 additional spots are expected to open in July and August because of summer cancellations, a number Davidson called a "conservative estimate."
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