The Office of Residential Life and Learning's (ResLife) claim that it was able to fully meet student demand at the lottery earlier this month was met with contention after several students reported they were waitlisted for housing.
ResLife Director Yolanda King told the Daily last week that her office was able accommodate all housing applicants during the lottery, which ran from March 3-5 in the Gantcher Center, but this week said that since then, a waitlist has sprung up.
Just as ResLife was packing up and closing the lottery, a student came in seeking housing. This was the first student put on the waitlist.
The waitlist was about 20 students long last week, according to King, and that number has since grown to about 25 and could increase still.
Even so, this year's numbers still bode better for students than in prior lotteries, since it is "small list compared to years past," King said. The housing waitlist is usually about 50 to 75 students long, and in the past, a lengthy list has often formed at the lottery itself.
According to King, the main reason that students end up on the waitlist is because their plans for off-campus housing fall through, at which point they turn to ResLife for on-campus options. Students away from campus on personal or medical leave also occasionally seek housing after the lottery.
King anticipates that her office will be able to empty the waitlist after students who will study abroad next year cancel their housing, which they must do by April 30.
