Staff editorial: A lotto trouble

Thousands of rising juniors will log on to the Resident Life Department's website today to see what their future might hold. They will be assigned lottery numbers that will help them gauge the likelihood they will be able to live in university housing next year. The majority of them will have strong prospects, but an unlucky few, picked at random, will have to begin the search for affordable and safe off-campus housing.

Generally, many students are ready to leave behind the life of shared bathrooms and resident assistants when they reach junior year. But until construction of Oakland Hall is completed in fall 2011, some students who still want on-campus housing will get the boot.  However, the lottery system to select those ill-fated few is flawed and unfair.

At last week's Resident Hall Association meeting, RHA President Josef Mensah proposed legislation that would have eliminated the lottery system entirely by spring 2011. While the lottery system certainly needs a makeover, its elimination before any alternative is devised is impractical. That said, the ambivalence and simple lack of initiative of certain Resident Life officials and RHA members is a roadblock for progress.

A system that takes into account different factors about students in order to assign them a number that more adequately demonstrates their contribution to the university, not the luck of the draw, should replace the lottery system.

For example, this new system could be based on violations that have occurred in the dorms, similar to the priority points system used to determine who gets first choice during room selection. Such a system would reward students who have zero violations for infringements, such as for alcohol or noise, and encourage better behavior in the dorms if students wish to continue living on the campus their junior years. Academic performance could be taken into account. Although basing the system entirely on GPA would be unfair, students who have consistently performed below certain basic academic expectations could have a weaker chance of staying on the campus.

A priority point system used to determine who stays and who goes junior year would encourage better behavior and grades and advance Resident Life's ideals of community development. The unfairness of a successful student with zero violations being kicked to the curb instead of a student on academic probation with a trophy case of abuses simply makes no sense.

But despite the fairness and common sense of such a system, Resident Life and the RHA have been sluggish to do anything about it. Currently, no RHA senator has drafted legislation for such an alternative, and student leaders only proposed a futile attempt to do away with the lottery and leave a void in its place. Resident Life officials have raised concerns that could be easily solved with some critical thinking. Assistant Director of Resident Life Scott Young lamented the priority points system applied to junior housing would put transfer and Freshmen Connection students at a disadvantage because points are also based on the number of semesters spent on the campus. Certainly, Young is right this would be a problem. But the solution is simple: Don't base junior housing prospects on semesters spent living in the dorms. A priority point system for junior housing doesn't have to mirror that used for room selection entirely.

These problems are simple and could be easily solved. But in order to solve them, Resident Life and the RHA need to think critically. It should not be forgotten that living off the campus dramatically changes the lives of students and not everyone is ready for that step. Those who wish to continue living in the dorms should have an opportunity to demonstrate that desire by following the rules and working hard in school. By aimlessly assigning numbers to thousands of very different students, Resident Life is doing rising juniors a disservice.

A priority point system might be more work for Resident Life, but students deserve more than a game of chance.