For the first time in Brown history, the housing lottery, which opened yesterday at 3 p.m., took place on an online platform, instead of in Sayles Hall.
The lottery will last through Thursday, running during the afternoons and evenings.
After previously declaring their intent to participate and choosing housing groups and group leaders, lottery entrants were randomly assigned a rank and corresponding three-minute time slot. The assigned times and dates were announced March 26 on the Residential Council’s website.
During their allotted times, group leaders log on to the Office of Residential Life’s housing lottery website and search for rooms based on hall and room type. The leaders then designate which room each member of their group will live in for the 2014-2015 academic year.
After the three-minute time slot, the next group leader can log in, but the previous group leader is not kicked out, Richard Bova, senior associate dean of residential life and dining services, told The Herald in March. Group leaders may change their selected rooms until the end of their lottery day, The Herald reported at the time.
The sophomore and upperclassman lotteries are running simultaneously, since each draws from a separate pool of residence halls.
“I think (the lottery) was very easy overall,” said Alex Evangelatos ’17, whose group was assigned a mid-range number. His group of four didn’t get its top choice but “got close to it,” he said, landing a two-double suite in Barbour.
While other group members cannot select any rooms, they can log on to ResLife’s housing lottery website to see the live list of remaining, unreserved rooms.
Samantha Spear’s ’17 group of two watched its top-choice room disappear 20 minutes before their time slot, she said. They were vying for an Olney room, complete with a kitchen and private bathroom, which used to belong to the community director.
Residential Council members are stationed in Andrews Commons, Arnold Lounge and the first floor of Grad Center E from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. every lottery day to answer questions, according to an email Thursday from ResLife to all students participating in the lottery.
During these hours, ResLife also designated a special phone number for “emergencies that may arise during the housing lottery,” according to the email. No ResLife staff members could be reached for comment Monday because they were all answering phones.
With the move online, some students recalled the in-person lottery fondly. “As stressful as the lottery was, it was kind of fun,” said Daniel Hoadley ’15. Online, students don’t get to watch people stand and scream when the last Young Orchard or Vartan Gregorian Quad suites are taken, he added.
There was a “Hunger Games” element and “risk of bloodshed” to the old lottery, said Naomi Varnis ’16. The new system will give students more “time to breathe,” she added.
The online system would have been easier to navigate if the links for floor plans, lottery numbers and general information were all on the same webpage, said Georgina Halpern ’17. But the actual lottery was “easy,” she added, and she had no problems in choosing her room.
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