Students frustrated with campus housing options

Many rising juniors found themselves without a room Friday when upperclass room draw ended — but not more than usual, said Adam Rockman, undergraduate housing coordinator.

Rockman said the University will probably have campus housing for all interested undergraduates. But many students are still disappointed.

"By policy the University doesn't guarantee housing to juniors and seniors, but we have always been able to offer an assignment to any student who wanted to live on campus," Rockman said.

He said he does not think the situation would be any different this year.

The housing department is compiling a wait list for those who are currently without a room. Rockman said he would not be able to make an accurate assessment of the length of the wait list until April 30, when applications are due.

Students for whom rooms are available are usually notified in late August.

John Vermylen '05's six-person draw group was one of the unlucky students wait-listed. Vermylen said Rockman told the group everyone would be housed and that being wait-listed is not unusual.

Vermylen said he was upset with the housing situation on campus.

"I think it's ridiculous that as a junior I might end up living with people that I've never met before," he said.

USG vice president Jacqui Perlman '04 is trying to change the way room draw works so that students won't find themselves with a situation like Vermylen's.

"I brought this to the USG a couple of weeks ago and did get the USG's support to speak with the administration about trying to relieve the wait list period for students, to make the process as easy as possible," Perlman said.

Perlman said she is pushing for wait-listed students to be allowed to live in a residential college, if nowhere else. She said she offered this solution after the administration rejected her proposals to house graduates in Lockhart Hall — currently a dorm for graduate students — or to postpone renovation of 1903 Hall.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

"I'm just trying to work some kind of compromise with the administration," Perlman said.

Despite Rockman's assurances, Vermylen and the members of his group are looking into off-campus housing, but they are not hopeful.

Other students who did not get a room and would normally join the wait list for dorm rooms are seeking alternatives to on-campus housing.

Julie McGinnis '05, a member of an eight-person draw group, said she was told everyone in her draw group would almost certainly receive some kind of housing assignment — just not the kind they initially wanted.

Even before draw, on-campus housing application forms warn that draw groups can be broken up and individual members assigned to any available room.

"The problem is staying with your group, or with anyone from your group, and that's definitely not guaranteed. [Rockman] could find us a spot — he could put me in a random quad and someone else in a random triple," McGinnis said.

She said she has contacted two realtors to search for a place to live off-campus. McGinnis' group is looking at apartments above shops on Witherspoon Street and houses behind the Friend Center.

McGinnis said her group would prefer to live on campus because it would be a hassle to worry about amenities such as furniture and telephone bills that the University usually handles. Off-campus housing is also more expensive, she said.

Underclass draw, in which rising sophomores choose rooms in their residential colleges, begins today.