The confusing and frustrating housing lottery process is amplified for students who walk out of Cousens Gym without a definite room to live in for the next year. Seventy-seven freshmen males were placed on the waiting list for housing, a recurring and avoidable problem that the Office of Residential Life and Living (ORLL) must end.
In 2002, nearly 20 freshmen women had the same trouble. If this is a continual problem, why hasn't the ORLL taken steps to avoid it? ORLL director Yolanda King told the Daily that she is making "every effort to avoid this problem next year." Will we hear the same in the future?
Students are left on the waiting list for housing every year, and every year we are promised that these problems will be fixed in time for the next housing lottery. King has been ORLL Director for three years; she should have resolved this problem already.
The needs of the current freshmen class must be a priority since they are required by University policy to live on campus next year. ORLL should know how many rooms are needed for the class of 2008, and how many of them are male or female - they know how many people they allocated rooms to this year. ORRL must ensure that there is a bed guaranteed for every freshman number distributed.
The ORLL has been notoriously unorganized under King's tenure, and this gaffe at the housing lottery shows there are still problems which, despite similar problems in the past, need to be ironed out once again. Students on the waiting list in previous years had a difficult time obtaining information about their housing options from ORLL, and it was nearly impossible to contact King.
Hopefully things are changing for the better now. Students this year have already been contacted about their housing options, according to King, and there is still time left for the 77 students on the waitlist to be given rooms before the semester ends.
The past year has been a challenging one for ORLL. Last spring a number of long-term employees left at the time of the housing lottery, and some Resident Assistants were also vocal about their dissatisfaction with King. After a year to regroup, hopefully King and the ORLL will be able to resolve the current freshman housing crunch smoothly. If not, the University must examine why the ORLL has struggled with the same problems every year. Serious changes in the department may have to be made, but they would be necessary to ensure the smooth allocation of housing each year to students.
