By Ame Phitwong Senior Staff Writer
Some students came away from the Residence Life housing selection disappointed last Tuesday because more than twice as many student groups applied for university-owned rental houses this year.
Forty student groups applied this year, according to Michael Walsh, director of Residence Life.
Walsh believes this demand is in response to the increasing rental prices in the surrounding neighborhood.
"I try to keep the prices relatively low," Walsh said.
He explained that the university rentals reflect the room and board rate on campus. According to Walsh, when those prices increase, so does off-campus housing. In previous years, the demand for university rentals has been consistent, so the spike in applicants surprised Walsh.
"At first we were a little disappointed," said junior Lisa Pearson about not obtaining a university rental.
Pearson explained that originally she had a group of five students, but ended up with three after two opted out. At the housing selection, her group was eligible for one house, but didn't like it so the group chose to move into Tyson Hall.
"After weighing the benefits and pricing of row housing, we're now really excited about it," Pearson said.
Walsh said Residence Life has been reevaluating the costs of each rental house and changing rent that reflects the number of rooms. He said the rent of some houses was reduced while others increased, depending on whether the house had two or three bedrooms.
Some houses were taken off-line, meaning that a room or house was not available to students. Walsh said some students were upset because they had received a tour of houses that they were unable to rent.
"It was a mistake on our part," Walsh said.
The houses became off-line because a group of students chose to stay in the house and another was made available to the new vice president of Financial Affairs.
Students are currently given housing based on a point system. Walsh said this point system reflects the values the university holds about making UP a residential campus. He said UP is different from other schools because it has freshmen through seniors in the same building and encourages people to remain in the same halls and live on campus.
"The points system mathematically represents those values," Walsh said.
Points are based on a student's credit hours and how long he or she has lived on campus. Additional bonus points are given for remaining in the same housing. A group of students usually pools their points together, and the total of each individual group determines who gets housing.
"I'm really excited that my group got a house," junior Juleen Adelman said. "We were worried that we weren't going to get a house because there were so many groups."
Adelman said the total points of each group were very close. Her group applied for one of two available five-person houses. Ranking second, Adelman's group got the remaining house.
Walsh said a lottery system has been proposed to award housing and explained that by using that system, everything could be done in one day. All the students could be brought to the Chiles Center and the lottery would allow more freedom in decisions. Walsh said there are advantages to both systems, but would like to hear more student feedback on which option they would prefer.
"There's always going to be unhappy people because of the limited supply," he said.
Adelman said she likes the current point system because it worked well for her group. One student in her group earned additional points for living in university housing, which added up in the end.
"I can see the frustration in people applying for housing because some could be at a disadvantage, but I don't know if a lottery system would work either because juniors and seniors may not get houses," Adelman said.
