RHA leaders call housing lottery system unfair

Some student leaders called for the abolishment of the housing lottery at Tuesday's RHA meeting, but with no alternative in sight, a university official said it will have to stay for now.

Resident Hall Association President Josef Mensah, a senior theatre major, proposed a resolution ending the lottery system by spring 2011, arguing that it is unfair because it is too random. Although skeptical senators shot the bill down 11-27, Assistant Director for Resident Life Scott Young said he is interested in discussing problems with the system.

"In the normal room selection process, students are docked points for violating rules," Mensah said. "But in the lottery, a model resident could be denied housing while a student who has gotten a citation every semester is accepted."

In spring 2007, Resident Life unexpectedly turned away many rising juniors and all rising seniors from on-campus housing after the dorms filled to capacity with freshmen and sophomores. Resident Life subsequently implemented a lottery system for rising juniors: Students are randomly assigned a number positioning them in line to enter room selection and receive on-campus housing, and those with higher numbers are warned early on that they may be turned away.

Rising juniors receive their lottery numbers Monday.

While Mensah claimed the lottery system would prove unnecessary when about 1,000 new spaces open in South Campus Commons and Oakland Hall, most senators said they couldn't support a bill based on wishful thinking. The lottery continues to serve an important purpose for rising juniors, they said.

"The lottery system is a way of informing students early on whether they're likely to get housing or not," RHA Vice President and senior government and politics major Travis Durepo said. "They need to know that information as soon as possible so that they can secure a place off campus if there is any possibility at all that they'll be turned away."

Young confirmed the senators' fears, saying it is too early to tell if juniors can be guaranteed housing by spring 2011. If they can be accommodated, Resident Life will abolish the lottery anyway, he added.

"We certainly hope we can give most juniors housing by that time. But at this point I don't think we can get rid of the lottery without first establishing some kind of alternative," said Young. "What other way will we do it?"

RHA senators discussed creating a lottery system structured more like the priority-point process for room selection, in which points are docked for poor behavior, but no senator has drafted a formal resolution to that end yet.

But Young said even that suggestion could have its downsides.

"I'm not really sure the priority-point system is fair to begin with," said Young. "It's already pretty random — I would say only 10 percent of people out of, say, 1,100 rising juniors, actually get points docked down for anything."            

And there are other drawbacks to making the lottery more like the priority-point system, he added.

"Students also get priority points based on how many semesters they've lived in a dorm," Young said. "Should transfer students and freshmen connection students be at a perpetual disadvantage, too?"

South Campus Commons Building 7 will house more than 300 students beginning spring 2010, and Oakland Hall will add about 700  beds in fall 2011.

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