New Housing Lottery Creates Problems for Students
Torri Adrian
Issue date: 5/3/06 Section: Perspectives
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The housing lottery is an event that students meet with mixed feelings of anticipation and dread. The prospect of not living with one's friends and ending up in a hall that was not even on one's list is daunting. But what if everything does go one's way without a hitch? It is a pretty cool feeling.
In past years, the housing lottery was divied up by class, and each student was given a random number. Each class was assigned its own time in order of seniority, and lottery numbers were selected much like a name is drawn for a 50/50 raffle.
This year, the administration decided to institute a new system for housing. Everyone was assigned a number when he paid, and one's number determined the time one attended the lottery.
To me, it seems like this system was very disorganized and haphazard. It was as though nothing was planned far enough in advance to allow for major glitches to occur or to formulate back up plans.
It is understandable for a new process, especially one that involves so many students, to have a few minor setbacks. But it is really unacceptable for such a multitude of things to go wrong. I am not here to complain about people not getting the rooms they want - people can get shut out of their first choices regardless of the system. I am talking about real problems.
It started when students went to pay and could not get a receipt proving that they paid because a certain code was not ready yet. Then there were problems regarding housing and credits. Where were existing students, especially those who were a few credits short of their actual statuses, going to live if more and more room was being made for incoming freshmen? And after the housing lottery, many impending sophomores were left without places to live at all. All the administration could really do was run around like chickens with their heads cut off, scrambling to improvise any way they could.
Housing can be a complicated situation. But it seems like Manhattan College cares more about increasing the number of freshmen, many of whom will probably transfer anyway, instead of making sure that current students who have been here longer have priority.
Manhattan College guarantees housing for all four years. Instead of admitting everyone that applies here, how about making sure that the people who already do go here are guaranteed a place to live?
And yes, in all fairness, Residence Life is not sitting by idly while it goes to hell. But I think that for $30,000 per year we deserve at least some sort of well-thought-out process - or at least a very strong plan B.
In past years, the housing lottery was divied up by class, and each student was given a random number. Each class was assigned its own time in order of seniority, and lottery numbers were selected much like a name is drawn for a 50/50 raffle.
This year, the administration decided to institute a new system for housing. Everyone was assigned a number when he paid, and one's number determined the time one attended the lottery.
To me, it seems like this system was very disorganized and haphazard. It was as though nothing was planned far enough in advance to allow for major glitches to occur or to formulate back up plans.
It is understandable for a new process, especially one that involves so many students, to have a few minor setbacks. But it is really unacceptable for such a multitude of things to go wrong. I am not here to complain about people not getting the rooms they want - people can get shut out of their first choices regardless of the system. I am talking about real problems.
It started when students went to pay and could not get a receipt proving that they paid because a certain code was not ready yet. Then there were problems regarding housing and credits. Where were existing students, especially those who were a few credits short of their actual statuses, going to live if more and more room was being made for incoming freshmen? And after the housing lottery, many impending sophomores were left without places to live at all. All the administration could really do was run around like chickens with their heads cut off, scrambling to improvise any way they could.
Housing can be a complicated situation. But it seems like Manhattan College cares more about increasing the number of freshmen, many of whom will probably transfer anyway, instead of making sure that current students who have been here longer have priority.
Manhattan College guarantees housing for all four years. Instead of admitting everyone that applies here, how about making sure that the people who already do go here are guaranteed a place to live?
And yes, in all fairness, Residence Life is not sitting by idly while it goes to hell. But I think that for $30,000 per year we deserve at least some sort of well-thought-out process - or at least a very strong plan B.