Abandoning plans to release housing lottery numbers in January, the Office of Residential Life will not release the list - which determines the order in which students select on-campus dorm rooms and co-ops - until March 6. Last semester, ResLife announced that it would publish the numbers early to lessen the burden on juniors-to be who are denied housing. The extra month would have offered these students more time to scour the saturated local housing market for apartments.
The date was pushed back because the computer system that assigns lottery numbers is incompatible with the system that assigns class status. Both systems must be up-to-date for lottery numbers to be given out, making lottery numbers unavailable until add/drop forms have been processed. Residential Life Director Lorraine Toppi declined to comment for this article.
With rising rents and a lack of high-speed Internet connections off-campus, on-campus housing has become more popular in recent years. Dean of Students Bruce Reitman also cites an active campus, dorm renovations, and "the beginnings of wireless connection availability" as allures of on-campus housing.
Because housing is only guaranteed for freshmen and sophomores, juniors-to-be feel the most pressure to receive a high lottery number. But TCU Senator Josh Belkin points out that in recent years, all students who have requested housing have received it. "People shouldn't be alarmed," he said.
The proposed earlier release date was intended to help juniors-to-be know if they needed to search for off-campus housing earlier in the semester. When the January date was announced, the parties involved in the negotiation anticipated that, in the future, lottery numbers would be released in November. It has yet to be determined if numbers will be released any earlier in upcoming years.
According to ResLife's Housing Forecast for 2002-2003, the effect of the Sept. 11 attacks is "difficult to anticipate." If less students decide to study abroad, it will increase the number of juniors-to-be vying for on-campus housing.
According to ResLife, 35 percent of juniors live on campus, 35 percent study abroad, and another 30 percent live in off-campus housing. Reitman noted that the housing forecast "reflects the trends of recent years."
The Sept. 11 attacks seemed to have little effect on the number of juniors studying abroad this year, as Reitman said that students who planned to study abroad stuck to their plans. Also, many sophomores have not been deterred from going abroad next year.
"The threat of terrorism doesn't bother me at all," sophomore James Mitchell said. "I've flown numerous times from Logan Airport to DC and back after Sept. 11." Mitchell plans to study in Madrid next year.
Students who study abroad in the fall are almost always given on-campus housing upon their arrival, according to ResLife. Those who study abroad in the spring are released from their contracts if notice is provided by Nov. 15.
Reitman acknowledges that the forecast does not give definite help to students, but that ResLife typically does the best it can. "The good news is that students almost never leave the University because they can't find a place to live," Reitman said.
