Choosing a place to live

The imbroglio in Cousens Gymnasium is not surprising considering the innate stress of the housing lottery, but it was without a doubt exacerbated by the recent and sudden departure of Associate Director of Occupancy Management Lorraine Toppi. The two problems should be not be conflated.

Toppi's departure during the most hectic part of the year for the Office of Residential life threw a monkey wrench into the works. Many candidates to be Residential Assistants are still unsure of whether or not they were accepted, and freshmen went into Cousens Gymnasium to choose their rooms for next year prepared only with the knowledge they had sought out themselves, whether from the ResLife website or from upperclassmen. Toppi was responsible for these two activities. She could have expedited the selection and notification of RAs and provided better guidance to freshman about the lottery system were she still here.

This does not change the fact that room selection is essentially an agonizing process. Choosing a roommate for the next school year is not easy. Finding a satisfying, or at least sufficient, room is likely to leave one disappointed. One proposal by Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate Historian Jeff Katzin last semester would consider whether a student's lottery number was high, middle, or low the year before to make sure that every student has a number in the top third at least once. This is ineffective since most juniors and seniors live off campus, so the only important number is the one assigned freshman year. Most proposed changes face similar problems.

In 2002 lottery numbers were released in December instead of March. This change allowed students to think more about their living situation and to be better prepared for selection day. Unfortunately, ResLife failed this year to come through with informational follow-up material that could have made the process even easier and less distressing.

ResLife has to deal with many intricacies surrounding student housing at Tufts. There are weaknesses to the current system, but normally it works well enough. Most freshmen will find out sophomore year that their fears are unfounded. The confusion created by the surprising departure of Lorraine Toppi indicates that Director of ResLife Yolanda King should focus on establishing a long term staff that will become familiar with the system and will be able to help nervous freshman through this chaotic event.