As the school year begins to wind down, 219 students at Saint Louis University have been left wondering if they will have a roof over their heads when they return this fall-and, if not, what will become of their $2,000 housing scholarships. ?

Housing appointments for the 2008-2009 academic year began Thursday, March 27, and, after all available spaces were filled by midday Saturday, March 29, many students, including freshman Paige Pedersen, were frustrated.

“I feel kind of cheated by the University, because it seems like they accepted more deposits than they have space for,” she said.

Pederson was told during her appointment on the evening of Saturday, March 29, that she would be placed on a waiting list for housing.

The $250 deposit was just one component of the housing application requirements. Each student had to submit his or her application by Feb. 29 and meet for individual appointments, which were assigned in late March and held in the Reinert Hall ballrooms.

Pedersen was not the only disgruntled freshman. The class of 2011 makes up the majority of the 219-person waiting list. The list also includes some upperclassmen and graduate students, said Susan Fanale, associate director and interim director of the Department of Housing and Residence Life. While this list is shorter than last year’s waiting list of 261, some students feel that it is still unacceptably large.

Freshman Tim Lemieux, who was put on the housing wait-list as soon as he arrived for his appointment, said that he is disappointed in the system.

“You really depend on the school to be there to help get you housing, get you someplace to live,” Lemieux said. “And to be told about a month before finals that they don’t have housing for you, it’s really frustrating.”

The on-campus housing scholarship that has been awarded to many SLU students has also raised problems beyond the housing itself.

The $2,000 housing scholarship is awarded as part of most SLU-sanctioned scholarships, according to Cari Wickliffe, director of Student Financial Services.

Some students who have been put on the waiting list, such as freshman Thomas Combes, wondered if they would be able to keep this portion of their scholarship if they are forced to live off campus next year.

“Why don’t they just give us the money if we already earned it because of our scholarship?” Combes asked. “I don’t see the reason why they couldn’t just give it to us.”

Wickliffe said there is a possibility of that money going toward tuition if a student is ultimately denied housing.

“At the point where it’s determined that there will not be enough beds for the students who have applied for housing,” Wickliffe said, “students will be given the choice to take their scholarship and move it to tuition.”

Fanale, who noted that there is a wait-list every year for housing, expects the problem to work itself out.

She said that in the upcoming months, once students who currently have housing decide to study abroad in the fall, transfer or live at home, more spots will open up.

Housing and Residence has been reviewing and revising the housing priority process during the past year, Fanale said.

“We have also been working very closely with enrollment management to follow the numbers and the trend of what the incoming freshman class size will be,” Fanale said.

She said that she hopes that this will help minimize this problem for future housing signups. ?

Fanale said that the housing assignments are on a rolling process, but most students can expect to be notified of their status sometime after May 1.