The Office of Residential Life is adjusting the housing lottery system this year to better accommodate the needs of rising sophomores, said Richard Bova, senior associate dean of residential and dining services. After the spring lottery, 260 sophomores did not know where they would be living this fall and had to be placed through summer assignment, The Herald reported at the time.
This year, rising sophomores will be put into a sophomore-only lottery that guarantees housing for all who apply, Bova said. In past years, sophomores have often felt disenfranchised by the second-year housing situation.
By creating a special lottery and clustering sophomores in the center of campus in dorms including Hegeman, Caswell and Slater halls and Wriston Quadrangle, ResLife hopes to create a feeling of structure and community, Bova said. A specific sophomore lottery should also take away the fear and mystery of summer assignment, he said.
"I felt like I had no place to go," said Gadi Cohen '15, a staff writer for The Herald, after going through summer assignment this year. "I felt lost, like I had been robbed of a home."
"I felt like we were going to all get split," said Angela Ramponi '15, whose housing group is now scattered throughout Vartan Gregorian Quad. But most sophomores who went through summer assignment were happy with their placements.
"My group scored. They all got huge singles in New Dorm," Ramponi said. The largest downside for those who go through summer assignment is that they can get separated from their peers as Ramponi did.
"I'm living with mostly juniors and seniors in singles around me," she said. "You have to make a little more effort to find people."
The newly designed sophomore lottery will ensure that students do not simply get what is "left over" after upperclassman select the best housing options, Bova said.
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