The Office of Residential Life and Learning's (ResLife) housing registration process, conducted for the first time online, last week finished out its first rounds for apartment, suite and special housing selection. Despite some technical glitches, administrators deemed the process overall a success.
The new online system — initiated this year in response to student request — allows students to use a program to sign up for their on-campus housing for next year using Reslife's new Housing Management Portal, which is based on software maintained by an Australian software company, StarRez and StarNet Systems.
Students last month were able to use the system to enter the lottery for suites in Hillside Apartments, Latin Way and Sophia Gordon and Wren Halls, as well as Bridge Program and Healthy Living rooms in Metcalf and Lewis Halls.
Some students signing up for apartments and suites experienced minor technical glitches in the system, according to Jim Moodie, associate bursar of systems and operations at Student Services.
In one case, the program timed out during the intended selection period, Moodie said. Freshman Carolina Reyes said she encountered similar difficulties while applying to register for a Hillside apartment.
When one of my friends just tried to add herself to the group, the actual button for the application wasn't there, so she couldn't add herself to the housing application. That entire day was a struggle because I couldn't add her to the group," Reyes said.
These problems were isolated and not widespread, according to Moodie, who said that most of the glitches did not much affect students' ability to register.
"The technical glitches are a function of the customization," Moodie said. "We worked with StarRez to document the problems and their fairly robust developing team diagnosed and solved the problems."
Previously, students signed up for housing by standing in line and filling out paperwork in Cousens Gymnasium, a process that ResLife Director Yolanda King said was outdated.
"In the past we had the antiquated way of going over to the gym," King said.
King said that the motivation for moving the system online came from outside the ResLife office.
"The change was based on feedback from students," King said. "Every time we did the lottery over at the gym we would have an evaluation, and almost all the students said to set it up online like course selections."
King said ResLife has attempted to remain accessible to students as they navigate the new technology.
"We feel we've been good with our communications regarding delays," King said. "We're trying to schedule the individual times in a way to give students time to use it and adjust," King said.
In a bid to further increase transparency, ResLife plans to next year put the calendar for the entire process online in advance of the beginning of registration, something they this year were unable to do because they did not know how long each registration period would take, ResLife Assistant Director of Community and Judicial Affairs Carrie Ales said.
"We didn't want to put the whole calendar out before things were adjusted," Ales said. Next year we'll alleviate that from the beginning."
King added that ResLife will solicit further student opinion once the general housing lottery closes next month, and plans next year to hold more informational meetings with the aim of increasing communication between students and administrators.
Ales said students have so far expressed generally positive feedback, calling the system more user-friendly.
Rising juniors and seniors will this week register for the lottery and begin to select housing. The general lottery for rising sophomores will begin after spring break.
The new system remains based on the lottery numbers that have always dictated housing selection, King said. "The system is set up to continue to maintain equity regarding lottery numbers," King said.
ResLife began the push for an online housing lottery three years ago, and customized RezStar's technology to Tufts' needs once it was selected, according to Ales.
"Because we wanted to maintain the process in which we have students get housing, the system was very customized to mimic what we did in the gym," Ales said.
The online housing lottery replicates the compartmentalized nature of the Tufts housing lottery by accounting for different types of housing, such as those for apartments and suites, Moodie said.
Starting with the apartment, suite and special housing lotteries have given system administrators the opportunity to prepare for the coming larger general lottery, Moodie said.
"The beauty of the lotteries is that for the most part they get increasingly larger in volume," Moodie said. "We are slowly ramping up to what the general lottery will be."
