At 3 p.m. Friday afternoon, the last draw groups of the Class of 2006 were receiving the disappointing news that there were no more on-campus rooms available.
Because the Housing Department recently adopted a policy guaranteeing housing for all enrolled undergraduates, the students without assigned rooms were placed on a wait-list. They will be notified in August when the Housing Department has found rooms for them.
"The worst-case scenario for students at the bottom of the wait-list [is] their group will get split up," said Assistant Director of Undergraduate Housing Lisa DePaul.
In that case, each member of the group may be assigned to openings in various suites, she said.
Though she does not know where the wait-listed students will be living next year, she said she expects they will be housed somewhere on campus.
"I think the worst part is that you just don't know what you're going to get until August," said Eric Remijan '06, who was unable to draw a room.
Ryan Walsh '06, a member of Remijan's draw group, said he is working with the USG to try to develop a better system for room draw.
"I think it's easy to assume randomness is fair, but it's not," Walsh said. "Strict randomness . . . creates perpetual losers and perpetual winners."
Walsh, who also had a late draw time last year, suggested room draw be weighted so that those with late draw times the previous year would have better times in the next housing lottery.
"We're trying to figure out a way to place slight weights based on previous draws," he said. "There would still be a lottery; it would just be adjusted."
Unlike Walsh, Remijan said he did not think the room draw system was at fault. "I feel like it's fair," he said. "It was random; I was unlucky."
DePaul also characterized the process as fair. "We [the Housing Department] think it's fair and equitable because it wipes the slate clean . . . Everybody had the chance to get the best time or the worst time," she said.
DePaul said that despite the wait-list, this year's room draw was a success. "Overall, the process for juniors and seniors did go very well," she said.
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