I was under the impression that WPI wishes to produce socially conscious engineers and scientists. This evening I was relieved of that misguided illusion. I stood in line for two and one half hours to find out that there was one female housing space left on campus and there were three of us. This was the culmination of an evening of watching a housing process which seemed to encourage a philosophy of "ditch you if it helps me." Which in my opinion seems very contrary to the educational philosophy which this institution espouses.
I have no complaints about the housing selection process in and of itself. In my opinion it was very fair and took into account that WPI students do not know where the end of the line is (e.g. add/drop). However in another sense it was very unfair in that there needs to be more housing on campus, and this was demonstrated by my standing in line with a lottery number of 152 out of 1300, and not getting anything but a spot on a wait list.
Why wasn't this shortage of housing publicized more fully and why is WPI increasing class size and decreasing housing space? I was aware that housing is only guaranteed to freshmen, but I wasn't aware that the administration fully expects nearly half of those living on campus to move off each year. At the beginning of this academic year there were 689 freshmen and approximately 1300 students in total, living on campus. Assuming that the on campus distribution of upperclassmen is equal, that would mean about two hundred students per graduating class were living on campus, with two hundred seniors leaving on campus housing, which would leave 200 slots for freshmen to fill. So 400 freshmen must move off campus next year. Well one may ask, what about upperclassmen moving off campus? Let us be realistic, regardless of financial aid, unless you want to live in an overcrowded apartment, on and off campus living are not economically equivalent. And if one is not picky about what one eats, why cook for yourself, when you can enjoy the sumptuous and exotic cuisine available at DAKA?
If one is not involved in Greek life, students must find their own apartment. I think most parents would prefer hearing that their child was going to move off campus into their own apartment later in their academic career, rather than immediately following freshman year. Perchance giving priority to underclassmen in housing would ease the foreheads of many tuition paying parental units.
Perhaps why the WPI community is often criticized for lacking a cohesive community spirit could stem from the fact that the administration seems more concerned in recruiting new students with state of the art facilities, then in caring for and nurturing the captive audience of students already here and paying tuition (and housing, if they're lucky).
Sincerely, Karen J. Hirst '00