The problem with housing selection is the lack of housing

Last week saw the annual event of on campus housing assignments. This was the second year for the new system which replaced the previous lottery system. There were a few changes from last year with the most significant being the assignment of random numbers to every on campus resident. These numbers would be used to determine the order in which people would be serviced for change of building requests instead of the "first come first serve" process which was the source of many complaints last year.

This year however saw just as many complaints. This time from the fact that there few rooms available on the last day of housing selection for those wishing to change buildings. This was mainly due to the large size of this year's and next year's freshman classes. There are simply more people competing for the same number of rooms. One must realize that it is not the fault of Residential Services that everyone who wants on campus housing does not get on campus housing.

Residential Services has set up a system that is probably as fair as it can be. It gives everyone who wants to remain on campus the option of squatting to guarantee themselves on campus housing. Those who want to move to different on campus housing take a bigger chance of not getting what they want but still have a chance of getting on campus housing. The biggest problem is that there simply isn't enough housing. This problem is compounded by the fact that the incoming classes are increasing in size. Residential Services has done what it can by tripling rooms that were previously doubles but that can only go so far and detracts from the quality of life in the dorms due to the overcrowding.

The housing problem is one that needs to be addressed by the administration. There was an idea that existed a few years ago to replace the apartments with dorms. This would have greatly increased the number of students that could be housed on campus, unfortunately the idea was deemed too expensive and the decision was made to simply renovate the apartments. However, from a student's point of view, I don't see any other alternative other than to replace the apartments with dorms. There simply isn't any other place to build additional housing. It would allow a greater number of students who wish to remain on campus to do so. The students who wish to live in an apartment can easily find something off campus for a comparable price. It would not be reasonable to expect that the housing situation be improved to the point that every student could be given on campus housing, however it is reasonable to expect that a majority of students who wish to be housed on campus have a reasonable chance of getting it and not be crammed in a double with two other students.