The general housing lottery, which began Tuesday and ended yesterday, hit a snag earlier this week after confusion resulted over the communication of lottery times.
Many sophomores reported that the first time they received an e-mail about when they should come to Cousens Gym to complete the room selection process was on Tuesday afternoon around 3 p.m. — two hours after the lottery had begun.
Current juniors and sophomores chose housing on Tuesday, while freshmen selection times were spread out across Wednesday and Thursday.
Associate Bursar for Operations Jim Moodie, who works on the technological aspects of the lottery, said that an e-mail about lottery times was sent out to sophomores, juniors and returning seniors on Feb. 27. The Daily saw a copy of a confirmation message that indicated the e-mail had been sent to over 3,800 students then.
But around a dozen sophomores surveyed yesterday by the Daily all said they did not receive any e-mail on Feb. 27 about the lottery.
As a result, some said, they had to scramble to make their times on Tuesday afternoon, when Student Services sent an e-mail to all undergraduates around 3 p.m. with a lottery number. That e-mail, at one point, inaccurately listed the days of the lottery.
Originally, the e-mail was intended only to be sent to freshmen a day ahead of their first housing lottery times. But Moodie and ResLife Director Yolanda King made the call to e-mail all undergraduates in an effort to maintain publicity about the ongoing lottery.
"We didn't think we would be doing any harm telling people the lottery was ongoing," Moodie said.
It remains unclear why a number of sophomores did not receive the first message.
Moodie and King both admitted that the dissemination of information over the past week could have been clearer — especially with respect to those who received the Tuesday e-mail and the inaccurate date in that message.
Meanwhile, a snow day on Monday complicated matters, pushing back a deadline for applications to live in Wren Hall and cutting a key day in which the Office of Residential Life and Learning could respond to students.
Still, students should have had plenty of time to plan ahead, King said, as information about the lottery was released in October.
She added that information sessions began immediately following the release of lottery numbers, and ResLife newsletters have contained the correct dates.
ResLife sent an e-mail to juniors and sophomores on Feb. 9 with the results of a housing survey that juniors received in November. In it, ResLife made predictions about what lottery numbers would garner certain housing options.
"I don't know how we can be responsible for a student … who does not pay attention," King told the Daily yesterday afternoon.
The room selection process preceded smoothly despite the mix-up and day off, according to King.
"Overall the housing lottery has gone very well this year," she said earlier in the day in ane-mail.
