Room draw suggestions: Add more rooms, remove gender barriers

The Housing Department doesn't want us to be stressed. "I sometimes hear that "Draw" can be a troublesome or stressful experience, even though it REALLY doesn't have to be!" reads this year's letter to undergraduates about 2003 room draw. Despite these good wishes, and cheerful punctuation, housing draw is a universally unpleasant experience on campus. Many of the problems are inherent in the system: telling a friend that their living habits eliminate them from roommate contention will always be awkward and someone will inevitably be allotted the very last draw time available. Still, Princeton's housing system creates a host of additional problems, from housing shortages to limited roommate selection, which add to the difficulties of the process. On a campus where students are prone to stress, finding a place to live shouldn't be so hard.

The most obvious problem with Princeton housing is that there isn't enough of it. The University should guarantee on campus housing for all four undergraduate years. Many schools that are not located in expensive residential communities make this promise to their students. In Princeton, where it would be nearly impossible for an undergraduate to find affordable off-campus housing, such a guarantee is a necessity.

Although the University typically finds housing for those students left homeless after spring draw, without any such assurance, the wait list is a terrifying place to be. Asking a student to spend the summer unsure whether they will be allowed to live on campus is unfair. In addition, students will do almost anything to avoid the purgatory that is the housing wait list. Room draw has become a game of strategy. Some will go independent to ensure themselves a good room. Others will apply for substance free draw or work themselves into larger draw groups. Making the housing process about beating the system rather than finding the best living arrangement is bad for the residential population and leads to more unhappy roommates. Princeton should take whatever steps it needs to – whether revamping the draw system or building additional dorms – to ensure that all students who want to live within the gates of the University can do so.

Changing the rules regarding coed housing would also improve room draw for students. Princeton has never allowed women and men to live in the same space, even in separate bedrooms. The reasons for this policy presumably date back to a time when a man in a woman's room was a scandalous proposition. In an age when friends of different sexes travel together, spend summers in the same apartments, and thrive on platonic intimacy, such a rationale is nonsensical. Even concerns that might continue to be relevant today, like the impacts of having a romantically involved couple opt to live together, do not negate the benefits of being able to cohabitate with one's friends, regardless of gender. Surely we can trust college students to make the best judgment about their own living situations.

Many of my closest friends are men and would make great roommates. Our relationships are not romantic or sexual and living together would surely not make them so. Dealing with a roommate after an all-nighter spent working on a midterm or a long evening at the Street is not endearing or attractive, regardless of the roommate's sex. Living together breeds familiarity and, in the best cases, friendship and respect. Why would the University want to keep men and women from forming these bonds? By allowing students to choose their roommates from the broadest possible pool, administrators can ensure a higher percentage of happy roommate relationships and a less difficult draw process for everyone.

Housing draw, like registering for classes, is a process that will always be somewhat painful and yet is entirely necessary. Still, the University can do more than write friendly letters encouraging us to try to get through the process with perspective and smiling faces. By guaranteeing housing for four years and allowing coed living arrangements, Princeton could make room draw a significantly less difficult event. In relieving all of us of some of our stress, the University would make each and every one of us that much easier to live with.

Katherine Reilly is a sophomore from Short Hills, N.J.