The Justice

Six students were waitlisted for sophomore housing after the completion of the sophomore housing lottery March 17, but they were eventually offered on-campus housing the next day, according to Assistant Director of Residence Life Jeremy Leiferman.

First-years and sophomores are guaranteed on-campus housing. However, some students, like Rebecca Eisenrich '12 and Ellen Franz 12, were given the choice of whether they wanted to go on the waitlist or live in residence halls that ResLife had selected for them. Others, like Zachary Herman '12, were not given a choice and were instead automatically placed on the housing waitlist.

Associate Dean of Student Life Maggie Balch and Leiferman said that most of the rooms offered to waitlisted students were previously saved for medical purposes, for instance, a carpetless room for students with severe allergies.

All students wishing to participate in the housing lottery were required to "check the box" in SAGE by January 31, "signifying their intent to live on campus the following semester," according to an e-mail sent by Massell Quad Director Brian Koslowski to the Massell residents. The Residence Life staff uses the "box" to make an estimate as to the number of beds required each semester.

Leiferman felt that because 769 out of 785 rising sophomores participated in this year's room selection process it was difficult to accommodate on campus housing for all of them.

As sophomores will no longer be housed in Scheffres, North Quad, it was more difficult to allocate housing, Leiferman said. He said that one-and-a-half years ago first-years were originally housed in Scheffres but in order to provide more housing to sophomores, Scheffres was offered to sophomores. However, thanks to the completion of Ridgewood Quad there is more room to accommodate upperclassmen, and so first-years will be allocated back to Scheffres next year, he said.

Dane Isenberg '12, who was a proxy for his friend Marc Eder '12, recalled that the housing lottery was "a very slow process." While he was waiting for Eder's number to be called, Isenberg counted the number of students waiting and informed the Community Development Coordinator on duty Laura Arroyo that "statistically the number of beds you have left does not match the number of people in the room." Isenberg felt that he was told to leave by Arroyo because he spoke to her "in a very caustic way." Eder was assigned accommodation in the Charles River Apartments without consultation and said that Reslife "took over and assigned me to Grad." Eder believes that "[ResLife] broke their own rules by kicking out my proxy."

Franz remembered feeling frustrated and "asking the housing people what was happening because [the housing allocation process] was taking three hours." Franz, who had a housing number of 779, was offered a single in Pomeratz the next day.

However, Herman said that he was not upset when he was put on the waitlist because he knew that sophomores are guaranteed housing. Herman felt that he had benefited by going on the waitlist as he received a single in the Castle the following day.

Erenrich, who had a housing number of 754 did not choose to live in the Charles River Apartments that was initially offered to her by ResLife because of religious reasons. Erenrich explained that she would not be able to carry on Shabbat, as the Charles River Apartments are not within the required designated area. She said that she was offered a medical double in Pomerantz the next day.

In the past, a $200 deposit was required in order "to guarantee that the students show up" at room selection, making the estimation process extremely accurate, Balch said. However, she elaborated, "because the deposit was not something students were interested in, we decided to release the deposit so we don't really have any control, and we have to blindly guess based on previous numbers.

In regard to the estimation process, Leiferman explained that they cannot predict the number of students tick the participation box but still do not show up for their housing appointments. Both Balch and Leiferman said that the manner in which housing is assigned will not be significantly altered next semester.

-Rebecca Blady, Shana D. Lebowitz and Nashrah Rahman contributed reporting.

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