As students prepare for the next academic year, the Office of Housing’s updated selection process has caused a mixed bag of reviews.
Proposed at an information session in early February, students must have filled an entire apartment, whether that be five or six people, and those that didn’t would be regrouped. These changes were meant to improve upon the former housing process, which caused issues in the past.
“The changes we made to the housing process came from student feedback,” Director of Housing Melissa Karipidis said. “There was a benchmarking study from one of the MBA classes of other similar universities and how they’re running their room selection process.”
A majority of the rising sophomores and juniors have already found housing, selecting their rooms in late March and early April with little to no issues.
“We got a good number. I didn’t have any problems with the selection process, and we didn’t get regrouped,” Luke Krout, a first-year sports communications major, said. “We had everyone that we wanted already in place, and there were no problems.”
Those that didn’t have a full suite were regrouped, and placed into suites they may not have necessarily chosen.
“My ideal scenario was four or six of us in the Village, that’s what we wanted,” Dana Gioglio, a first-year finance major, said. “Now, I’m living in a completely different group, and I’m with an RA in Troup.”
This sentiment was echoed by many students, who were unable to secure their favorite room.
“My ideal scenario was finding a group of dudes that I was friends with,” Sebastian Valencia, a first-year, 3+1 mechanical engineering major, said. “But, my housing scenario actually worked out kind of decently, because it turns out my friend group ended up getting regrouped also. They needed one more person, so I kind of filled that.”
Students that were regrouped received an email immediately following the selection process, with a link to a Zoom meeting to discuss future outcomes.
“I woke up and checked my Outlook, because I had a notification, and it said ‘you didn’t get a housing number because your group wasn’t filled,’” Valencia said.
“They said over 30 groups of four and over 30 groups of six in the sophomore class were regrouped,” Gioglio said.
Karipidis and the Office of Housing are working to resolve any issues that may arise and make sure every student has a safe and comfortable suite to live in next year
“If there’s a crisis or emergency, we wouldn’t not make a change,” Karipidis said. “Doesn’t matter when it is, we will be making changes. We’re committed to the student experience, and we really try so hard to approach all of these things with care.”
Students reflected on the selection process with various critiques and suggestions for how to fix the system, wanting a solution to an ever-changing process.
“I think, because of admittance rates, there’s been an issue with over-admitting across a bunch of colleges, so it kind of sucks,” Valencia said. “You can’t leave a lot of your students scrambling for housing.”
Rising sophomores will be living in either Mountainview, which has been used as a first-year residence hall in the past, The Complex, The Village, The Hill or The Suites. Rising juniors will be living in The Crescent, Westview, Townhouses, Founders Hall, Whitney Village or various Hill suites.