The Justice

The way Brandeis administrators have handled the housing situation this year shows that they are not doing enough to consider the student experience. Housing changes had to be made because of the negative effects of the flagging economy, and most students at Brandeis, myself included, understand that. However, that does not excuse the University from making an effort to demonstrate that it still cares about its students. As with other changes, the University needs to show more appreciation for its students' willingness to help and reach out further to work with us in order to create the best experience currently possible.

I was in the last group of around 50 students to pick a room during sophomore housing selection Tuesday night. It was clear to everyone sitting in the room that something went wrong in the plans. We could easily deduce from the number of students left and the information posted on the Web site what should have been known before room selection began: There were not enough spots available for all of the sophomores who wanted housing. It seemed that the Residence Life staff realized this at some point too from the way they scrambled to try to solve the issue. At any rate, housing ran out for both males and females by the end of the night.

While there were certain staff members who acted professionally, many did not give us the respect we deserve as members of the Brandeis community. Never mind the two-hour delay. Throughout the process, no explanation was given for what was happening, and no acknowledgment of any error on the part of ResLife was offered. This made the reality of only being able to live in first-year dorms or not knowing our future housing situation more stressful.

What occurred last Tuesday night has blackened my perception of a situation already cast in a negative light. It says to me that Brandeis does not care about the quality of its students' experience or think them intelligent enough to deserve an explanation of an already stressful situation in their lives. It does not care about the unity and quality of life of next year's sophomore class. Until now, sophomore housing has been set up to further solidify the first-year experience. Now, with 77 sophomores scattered among the first-years, sophomores are being deprived of a chance to extend first-year year relationships and continue to unite as a class.

Brandeis also did not consider the experience of next year's midyears, an already-segregated group that will now be further removed from the rest of the class by being housed in the Village next spring. As with next year's sophomores, part of the Brandeis experience will be lost for first-years. With all of these changes, Brandeis risks one of its greatest strengths-the unity of our campus community-without pursuing effective countermeasures.

Residence Life has since realized its error and admitted to problems with sophomore housing. Half a dozen people were put on the waitlist, but at least some have been given housing in East and the Castle. However, I believe that if Residence Life had taken more time to take an accurate count beforehand, the housing situation would be better for all sophomores.

Maybe even if they had done this correctly from the beginning, with every option considered and selection planned correctly, no students' living situation would not be any different next year. But the manner in which it was done wronged us as members of this University.

The writer is a member of the Class of 2012.

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