By COOPER RATHMANN and ADELINE TRAMMELL
Spring has fallen upon us once again. The change of seasons can bring forth the glamorous sunshine, yet most days it is a wind-stricken overcast, putting many students into despair. However, there is one ritual held annually on campus: the housing lottery.
The housing lottery and subsequent room selection are what make or break the upcoming year. Some lucky seniors are blessed with the palaces of the apartments or Whitney while some are condemned to dwell in the shadow realms of Porter, Blaisdell, and Bushnell.
Many newcomers are bamboozled as to why their number may be so high or low. Is it a proper assessment of grades and credits? Does Randi choose the names of students out of a cartoon-witch’s hat? Is there any real method to this madness?
The college’s website offers four practical components of the process. Each student is given a number according to their number of earned credits, and they would subsequently be called in descending order. The only two caveats to that selection process are those with accommodations or those who wish to stay in the same dorm.
It is sad to say, but the process that sounds very simple and fair has devolved into a modern Shakespearian-style tragedy for some.
One of these students is upperclassman Sam Vanderkolk’26 (number 380). He personally felt that “the process this year lacked some of the transparency of years past”. For example, Vanderkolk told me about the past processes and how laid out the floor plans were, in which you could personally look at the vacant rooms. However, this year’s selection has not panned out, to which he said “you had to rely on what you were told from whoever was running your assignment window as opposed to viewing it yourself”.
This perfectly embodies ResLife’s new rule as to who gets to live in the higher end buildings like Clary, Moore, and Whitney. It is not an explicit rule, but rather one that is getting passed around by word of mouth. It does not permit sophomores to live in those places even if upperclassmen with the proper credits want them to. There has been no further elaboration as to why this has been put into place after years of allowing it.
The sequence of events unfolding have led to Vanderkolk living in 840 for the third year in a row, which in all honesty is a little sad. Paying thousands of dollars to live in the exact same building three time seems like torture. I said I would personally need a change of environment long before that, to which he responded with “a change in scenery into something ‘better’ for a senior year is not only beneficial but also earned.”
This comes to show how the lottery can fall into the hands of anyone. Conall Witherite’28 (number 849) initially felt despair and shock after receiving his lottery number. He thought it was game over, but something, rather someone answered his pleas of rescuing. “I had one of my friends let me know we’d be getting into 815 which was crazy! I mean when I received my number I was a bit annoyed but I am only a freshman so I get it makes sense.” Sure, the number makes sense, but the way those numbers fall are controlled by a force beyond human comprehension. Graduating seniors were also given numbers, artificially inflating the numbers of the remaining students and confusing seniors who had no need for housing next year.
A person who won the housing lottery was James Ackerman ‘26, whose roommate had a number in the 280s. This allowed them to get an apartment together in Emerson hall, next to their friends on the same floor. By all measures, Ackerman won the housing lottery. Ultimately, what you need to get good housing is a roommate with a low housing number and a lot of luck.
Better luck next year to all the people who felt slighted by the system, you definitely won’t be in Porter for the rest of your college career!
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons
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