By Bruce Garlinghouse
Freshman Kimberley Vennes described the housing process that took place on Feb. 28 as one of the most stressful days of her life.
After the recent changes in the housing selection process that were supposed to simplify the process, many students have expressed similar frustration.
"It was just a really confusing process," said Vennes, a resident of Shipstad.
In previous years, room selection was done in each dorm. This year, room selection became a larger, single event in the Chiles Center. Director of Residence Life Michael Walsh said the change would bring efficiency and organization to the process.
However, according to many of the nearly 1,000 students who came to Chiles that day, organization and efficiency may have been lacking.
Vennes said the root of her confusion was lack of information about the point system.
"I didn't understand the point system. I had no idea what to expect going into the process," Vennes said.
While some were frustrated due to lack of information about the points system, others like freshmen Christian Godsey and Sam Crider, residents in Shipstad, felt the point system itself was unfair.
"A bunch of us wanted to stay in Shipstad and live on the same floor, but we got moved because juniors and seniors from other dorms had seniority and moved in," Godsey said.
Walsh disputed that claim, saying that due to the points system, situations like Godsey's and Crider's were infrequent.
"With the points system we have, freshmen and sophomores staying in their dorms would receive more points," Walsh said.
Walsh said most of the complaints he has received have been from rising sophomore residents in Schoenfeldt who were not able to move into suites while other sophomores were.
Suites are reserved first for rising juniors and seniors and then are made available to underclassmen. However, the shortage in rising upperclassmen presented a problem.
"Because Schoenfeldt is a new dorm, there weren't as many rising juniors and seniors. This allowed us to give some of the suites to rising sophomores," Walsh said.
"However, the suites began to get taken up too quick, so I had to limit the amount that could be given to sophomores in order to leave some available for the upperclassmen who wanted to move from other dorms," Walsh said.
Walsh said that the aftermath of this year's room selection was no different than previous years, and that he has actually received fewer complaints than last year.
"We get the same complaints every year. Not everyone gets exactly what they wanted," Walsh said.
He said the reason for the recent focus of criticism is due to it being the first year with a new system.
"The new system added some confusion, but that was to be expected. With every year we learn more and are able to make the next year even better," Walsh said.
Walsh said he already plans to change the system for next year in order to alleviate stress for students.
He plans to have selection for Tyson and Haggerty and on-campus apartments first.
Dorm selection will take place afterwards. This way those that won't receive an apartment could still participate in dorm room selection.
