Spring Break
Housing lottery numbers late after technical problems
by Miranda Neubauer
Senior Writer
News | 3/4/08
Posted online at 4:12 AM EST on 3/4/08
Due to a technical glitch, about one-sixth of the undergraduate student body did not receive their housing lottery numbers by e-mail when they were scheduled by Friday Jan. 22, said Rich DeCapua, director of residence life.
This is the first time the department has sent the numbers by e-mail, rather than distributing them to campus mailboxes.
DeCapua said the department used software to send the numbers out in batches. Two of the batches did not go out, he said, even though the office's information indicated that they had been sent. He said that Residence Life worked to address the problem on Monday Jan. 25 after receiving many distressed e-mails over the weekend.
DeCapua said two of the batches were larger than the system could handle, and some of the e-mails were deposited in the spam folders of students who forward their Brandeis e-mail to a different account.
All numbers were eventually sent out by 11 a.m. Monday, he said.
Posts on Facebook and an unofficial housing lottery blog maintained by Danny Silverman '05 indicated that students who drew numbers between one and 1,000 (rising sophomores) were affected. Among students with numbersbetween1,000 and 3,000 (rising juniors and seniors), only students with numbers below 1,400 did not receive their e-mails until Monday.
DeCapua suggested that students might be able to check their number in SAGE after an upgrade of the SAGE software this year. He explained that the initial decision to switch to e-mail was part of the department's sustainability effort.
Senator for Ziv Quad Justin Sulsky '09, who did not receive his number until Monday, said he believed that the University should stick with the e-mail system because of its environmental benefits. During the first-time run of the system, he said, "I guess that some kinks are understandable and I'm hopeful that next year the numbers will be sent out without any problem."
Some students were still upset about how Residence Life handled the situation. "They never really said what the problem was over the weekend," Beth Shriber '10 said. Even after the numbers were sent out on Monday, "I really feel like they didn't address it all."
This is the first time the department has sent the numbers by e-mail, rather than distributing them to campus mailboxes.
DeCapua said the department used software to send the numbers out in batches. Two of the batches did not go out, he said, even though the office's information indicated that they had been sent. He said that Residence Life worked to address the problem on Monday Jan. 25 after receiving many distressed e-mails over the weekend.
DeCapua said two of the batches were larger than the system could handle, and some of the e-mails were deposited in the spam folders of students who forward their Brandeis e-mail to a different account.
All numbers were eventually sent out by 11 a.m. Monday, he said.
Posts on Facebook and an unofficial housing lottery blog maintained by Danny Silverman '05 indicated that students who drew numbers between one and 1,000 (rising sophomores) were affected. Among students with numbersbetween1,000 and 3,000 (rising juniors and seniors), only students with numbers below 1,400 did not receive their e-mails until Monday.
DeCapua suggested that students might be able to check their number in SAGE after an upgrade of the SAGE software this year. He explained that the initial decision to switch to e-mail was part of the department's sustainability effort.
Senator for Ziv Quad Justin Sulsky '09, who did not receive his number until Monday, said he believed that the University should stick with the e-mail system because of its environmental benefits. During the first-time run of the system, he said, "I guess that some kinks are understandable and I'm hopeful that next year the numbers will be sent out without any problem."
Some students were still upset about how Residence Life handled the situation. "They never really said what the problem was over the weekend," Beth Shriber '10 said. Even after the numbers were sent out on Monday, "I really feel like they didn't address it all."
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