Off the room waitlist and into paradisal campus living

Imagine you're a rising junior, thrilled at the prospect of moving out of your residential college and into a huge suite in an upperclass dorm with all your friends.

You hear that room draw times have been posted, so you dash to the nearest computer and frantically scroll down the list in desperate search of your name.

"O.K., so I'm not on the first day," you think, "I can still end up with a sweet room somewhere in the slums."

But the scrolling continues.

"Hmm, alright, maybe not the slums, but a quad in Brown is still a possibility. And bunk beds aren't that bad — they were kind of fun when I was 12."

But as your finger begins to ache from the scrolling, even bunk beds look like a pipe dream. And then, finally, you see your name — and your draw time of 2:57 p.m. on the last day.

"Well, at least I'll be ahead of that poor guy drawing at 3:00 p.m.," you think.

For Thomas Atwater '06, this nightmare was a reality last spring.

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Upon learning of his less-than-stellar draw time, Atwater, a former Butler resident delighted to finally leave the college's waffle ceilings behind, said he reacted with "fury and despair."

"I did, in fact, contact the Housing Department many times to try to explain to them that I had actually lived in Butler for two years, so there must be some mistake," he said. "Surely somebody can't get the shaft for three years in a row."

But, as the Housing Department informed Atwater, in the University's random lottery room draw system, it is quite possible for somebody to "get the shaft" for three years in a row.

And Atwater was not the only one to fall prey to a bad draw time. He and over 60 other students with the latest draw times on the last day were added to the room draw waitlist last spring.

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However, the University guarantees housing for all enrolled undergraduates, including those on the waitlist.

"It works itself out because the students that are on the waitlist fill the rooms of the students that are leaving, whether it's voluntary, required or foreign study leave," explained Assistant Director of Undergraduate Housing Lisa DePaul.

However, waitlisted students still endure a summer of anxiety as they worry about the prospect of being separated from their friends and placed in a suite of unfamiliar faces.

As rooms open up from cancellations and withdrawals during the summer, those on the waitlist are asked to list room type preferences.

DePaul reported that, "We look at the request forms and see what students have written, and as we're going in order we'll give it to them."

However, Atwater remained skeptical of the Housing Department's pledge to heed his requests.

"The only say I got in the whole affair was that I was allowed to list my preferences . . . and that they would 'try their best to accommodate,'" he added.

But DePaul maintains that the Housing Department is usually successful in placing waitlisted students in rooms they are pleased with, often in rooms better than those available at their draw time.

Choosing the waitlist

This was certainly the case for Ashley Wellington '06.

After receiving a bad draw time, Wellington was faced with the prospect of living in a Brown quad or "one of those singles you have to sign a waiver for because it's smaller than a prison cell."

Not pleased with these choices, she actually opted to drop to the waitlist.

And her gamble paid huge dividends. Late in the summer, Wellington received notice that she had been given a huge single on the third floor of the ellipse dormitory.

Even Atwater fared well in the end. When a roommate of some friends decided to take a year off, "they were allowed to ask someone from the waitlist if he wanted to fill the gap. So that lucky person was me," he added.

Atwater now enjoys "a totally sweet room" in the tower of Henry, while the other members of his draw group "were similarly hooked up off the waitlist. They received a 940 sq. ft. quad and a 540 sq. ft. double in Spelman."

No prison cells, no unfamiliar faces and no life on the streets were in store for these waitlisted Princetonians.

Even Atwater's opinion of the room draw process changed after after having success with the waitlist.

"My opinion of the Housing Department for the last two years was that they are filthy liars and cheats," he admitted, "but I think of them a little better now that I have a super deluxe room this year."