The housing options fair and first-pick raffle originally scheduled to take place tonight at 7:30 p.m. has been cancelled.
The change is a consequence of impending reforms to how students select housing, Residential Council chair Travis Spangler ’13 wrote in an email to The Herald. Starting next year, students will be geographically clustered in housing communities based on their class years.
The fair was also cancelled because the Greek and Program Houses, which typically use the fair to recruit members, have developed new recruiting strategies, Spangler wrote.
“After freshman year, students commonly lose touch (with each other)” because they usually live in dorms dispersed around campus, said Residential Peer Leader James Clemmons ’14, noting that he supports the creation of the new communities. Clemmons added that he hopes Residential Council will offer “similar quality housing” to all students seeking on-campus housing next year, regardless of class year.
While the new community system will enable students to live with others in their class years, it will restrict the overall housing options available, noted Jack Diedrich ’16. Though Diedrich said “the freshman community is a really good idea,” he added that he prefers the system used in previous years to determine housing for rising upperclassmen.
Olugbenga Joseph ’16 said he mostly agreed with Diedrich. “Sophomores should not be required to live with other sophomores,” he said.
“I personally think it’s a good thing,” said Pheakdey Son ’15. The option was “very popular” last year, he said, when several dorms were reserved for sophomores, who have traditionally received the least desirable numbers in the housing lottery system. Son said he hopes the development of communities will “make the housing lottery a lot less stressful” and guarantee that more people will be able to get housing they prefer.
Summer assignment will be eliminated for sophomores who take part in the lottery, Spangler wrote.
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