Barnard students may soon see relief from the stress typically associated with the housing lottery.
Barnard’s Student Government Association held a Town Hall meeting Wednesday to solicit student input on recently proposed changes to the process. A 2008 survey, conducted by the Housing Advisory Board and the Office of Residential Life, revealed a strong desire among students for increased flexibility in suite selection.
Groups of students wishing to live in a suite are currently given selection priority based on a combination of their average class standing and a randomly assigned group lottery number. In the new system, students would register individually, receiving a lottery number independent of that of their potential suite-mates.
In the proposed system, groups would form after lottery numbers are assigned—each group’s lottery number would be the highest number of anyone in the group. If the available housing options at the time of selection do not match a group’s size, the group would then be forced to reform on the spot. In the past, students could not change the size of their groups after registering.
“As someone who personally had a terrible experience with housing selection, I think this program will drastically improve the quality of the process and decrease the stress level,” Student Government President Sarah Besnoff, BC ’09, said. “Now we’ll have so many more options.”
“I think it’s a really great idea that you don’t have to solidify your room ahead of time because that is the worst emotional trauma,” Senior Class President Jamie Prem, BC ’09, said. “People have fought over this.”
Still, others are not as confident in the proposals.
“I’m still very skeptical,” Brittney Field, BC ’09, said, raising concerns about what might happen if the student with the highest number in the group drops out.
Another proposal would introduce new housing registration technology. To register for housing now, students line up according to the building they wish to live in and register by paper. In the new proposal, students would line up at stations, where they would register on laptops and could track housing availability on an external monitor.
Staff would be on hand to guide students through the process, similar to housing procedures at Columbia.
While the proposal would technologically update the process, Associate Director for Housing Operations Matt Kingston said it was important to retain a personal touch in housing selection.
“It is important that students can get individual attention from staff who can help them figure out which dorms to select from,” Kingston said in an interview Wednesday.
“We’re smaller [than Columbia College/SEAS] and we’re able to give students individual attention, so it makes sense not to have room selection done completely online.”
Though the event focused on Barnard, officials said that changes are also in store for Columbia’s housing process. According to Executive Director of Housing and Accommodation Services Joyce Jackson and Chief of Administration Michael Novielli, CC ’03, a major proposal involves abolishing same-room and same-suite selection, which enable students to keep their previous room or suite from one year to the next.
Housing would also encourage rising sophomores, who are often given lower priority in housing consideration, to choose suites primarily according to their group size, instead of breaking up for more desirable accommodations. This would reduce the number of students forced to place into blind doubles with previously unknown roommates.
“The goal is to eliminate as many blind doubles as possible,” Jackson said.
On the whole, though, students have high hopes for the proposals. When Town Hall attendees were asked by administrators whether they were in favor of the changes, reception was almost unanimously positive.
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