Houses won't be included in lottery
Returning residential students will choose their living arrangements for next year during Tuesday’s room lottery.
Starting at 6 p.m., the selection process begins to assign students to a total of 200 available rooms. The lottery order was included in the room selection packets that were put in students’ mailboxes.
“All residence halls are available to upperclassmen,” Residence Life Director LaTika Webster said. “Elsey Hall and Hoover-Cline have designated rooms to create a blended community of upperclassman and new students.”
Along with the traditional residence hall rooms, houses are now being offered, but the option of living in a house will not be made available through the lottery process.
“Plans are still being developed and once finalized, our goal is to work with the current house residents first and then open them up to other residents,” Webster said.
She said any student hoping to live in one of the houses should pick a regular residence hall room first.
The college also plans to introduce themed housing in some of the campus houses. Proposals were solicited from the campus and the final drafts were reviewed to make sure there was a solid proposal from the campus community. The only one planned for next year is a Spanish-themed house.
“The point of themed housing is to provide a living-learning community environment for students with a specific interest,” Webster said.
Included in the Room Selection packet is information about what needs to be done before room selection night happens and the student’s computer-generated, random lottery number.
Junior Emily Grant said she thinks that the process is fair and that seniority is the best way to determine who gets the first room choices.
“They electronically give you a number so I wouldn’t see how that is not fair. Before we drew our own numbers out of a bowl and I could totally pick through and get which one I thought looked best.”
But Grant did have one suggestion to improve the room
selection process.
“One thing that they could possibly change is letting people request the same room they had the previous year if they wanted it,” she said.
To participate on Monday, students are required to fill out a housing form on myFC by 4 p.m. today.
All students are encouraged to print out a copy of their housing contract for themselves, as well.
Webster said the only problems encountered in the past with the room selection process were students not being prepared with a second option if their first is not available at the time their number is up.
For the first time, the room selection process will be done electronically.
Webster said she hopes the new electronic aspect will make the entire process more efficient.
