A proposed discontinuation of the “squatting” policy, implementing a lottery system, a waitlist and limited spaces for upperclassmen are only a few of the proposed changes that the Department of Housing and Residence Life aim to incorporate into the 2011 housing sign-up process.
In the weekly Student Government Association senate meeting, Dawn Aldrich, assistant director of Housing and Res Life, presented to senate on the proposed changes that will take effect for the spring sign-ups.
“I want to make sure you are fully aware of the proposed changes that we would like to make for the housing sign-up process for this spring,” Aldrich said.
In her presentation, Aldrich walked through changes that include no longer allowing students to “squat” in their current place of residence. Exceptions are for students approved through Disability Services and for students residing in the Flats at 374.
When asked why only the students in the Flats were exempt, Aldrich explained that it simply had to do with an agreement made with the building owners.
Another change to the process regards how upcoming junior and senior students will acquire their housing. A proposed lottery system in which students would select numbers that represent the order in which students can access their housing assignment time slot would help alleviate some of the issues that the upperclassmen faced last spring.
“Last year, we heard that juniors got the raw end of the deal,” Aldrich said in response to a question asking why the lottery system was chosen. “If the same priority system were used again, it would just be the same as last year.”
As of now, 825 spaces are being reserved for upperclassmen, 288 of which will be in the Flats. If a student is given a lottery number that exceeds the 825 spaces, they will be placed on a waitlist and will not be permitted access to the assignment portal, explains the handout with all the proposed changes.
“No matter how many we have, we’re going to run a lottery for all the applications,” Aldrich said. “We will then take 825 [students] and let
them select a space in their assigned time.”
Students who are placed on the waitlist have the opportunity to cancel their housing application and have their advanced housing deposit refunded.
While upperclassmen are not required to live on campus like freshmen and sophomores, some juniors and seniors are given a housing scholarship that can only be used if living in on-campus housing. Aldrich could not answer whether the housing scholarship would still be respected if a student were not able to acquire on- campus housing.
The Office of Student Financial Services will release a statement in December that states whether or not the housing scholarships will still be offered or if those funds will be applied toward tuition costs instead in the future. This is currently how scholarships are being marketed to incoming students.
Senior Amelia Blanton expressed that moving the housing scholarship to tuitionscholarships will be the best course of action in order to prevent the “fiasco” that occurred last year.
“So long as juniors and seniors, who do not make the lottery, can still use their housing scholarship and have that put towards tuition I agree with this system,” Blanton said. “If not they are truly being forced off campus without any benefit.”
SGA president Courtney Anvender feels that the lottery system will be the best to provide “appropriate allocations for upperclassmen.”
“This is one of the only ways that works best without having one class pushed
entirely off campus,” said Anvender, who also expressed her sentiments toward moving the housing scholarship. “I truly hope that SLU will be successful in moving the scholarship into the general scholarship fund.”
While juniors and seniors will see many changes to their sign-up process, sophomores will remain mainly unaffected by the changes, as the same priority system used last year will be in effect this year. Sophomores will have access to the housing sign-up system, after juniors and seniors have first pick of any campus housing space.
“The juniors and seniors get first dibs on anything they want on campus,” Aldrich said. “We’re not putting a restriction on percentages or anything like that for buildings. It’s wherever you guys would like to live on campus.”
There will be 1298 spaces reserved on campus for sophomores and this number is based on a retention rate of 83 percent. The retention rate for last year was 81 percent. Aldrich explained that if there were a large increase in retention then upperclassmen could see an impact in their housing availability.
An increase in the amount of incoming freshman who choose to live on campus would also have an affect on housing availability as 1575 spaces are currently being reserved. Currently there are about 1555 freshmen on campus.
With the approximate space allocations relying on close estimates with little room for enrollment increases, Aldrich stated that there are still no plans to construct a new dorm or acquire more residential space.
“We’re always looking and evaluating the area but no, there are no plans currently,” Aldrich said.
Res Life is also still evaluating their proposed changes. “The overall structure is pretty much set,” Aldrich said. “I wanted to have one last opportunity to present to a group of student to get some feedback and make little tweaks here and there.”
While SGA was able to voice their concern in the meeting, the student body will have a similar opportunity during housing informational sessions. The sessions will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 22, 11 a.m. on Nov. 23, 11 a.m. on Dec. 3 and 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 6.
