By Evan Castro
On Sunday, around 1000 students poured into the Chiles Center at the University of Portland for the housing selection process. Some students, such as myself, were quite excited for the selection process. But by the end of the day, I was frustrated, disheartened and cheated.
My roommate and I approached the desk and told the hall director what room we wanted, a suite. Turns out, as sophomores, we couldn't get one, which should be expected.
The thing is, several sophomores got suites. My roommate and I knew that a person with the same amount of points as us got a suite, and are now aware that a sophomore with lower points than us got one also. What's up with that?
On the Office of Residence Life's page, it clearly states:
"During the process, you will be called forward based on your highest rank (your Stay Hall Rank) first. When you come up to the selection area using this number, you can choose from any room in your current hall with a roommate from your hall - unless you are a junior or senior to be in which case you can bring in any UP student you like as a roommate or buy out the roommate space for a double single (as available)."
It clearly states that a person can choose any room as long as they have the points. This clearly was not done.
Nowhere in this statement does it say that class rank overshadows "Stay Hall Rank." In fact, it states that people with the highest rank will get to choose first.
However, people that had enough points were PROHIBITED from doing just that.
While we were at the table, Mike Walsh, the Director of Residence Life, made some things clear to us.
The suites were now being saved for upperclassmen. My roommate's and my thoughts: If the upperclassmen wanted the suites, they would have already gotten one.
With their higher points, they should have been able to reserve one for themselves before we even got there.
However, the suites were now being saved up for upperclassmen with point totals LOWER than my roommate and mine. Why were they lower?
They are moving in from different dorms. I'd like to make a point here.
These upperclassmen could easily have found another upperclassmen within the Schoenfeldt to live with and use that resident's stay hall points.
But that isn't what happened. Why even make a point system if it isn't going to be followed?
If I have more points than someone else, I should be able to get the room that I want, isn't that right?
That clearly isn't fair. Class status should not matter if there is a point total.
It's really contradictory to have a point system and not follow it. It could then be said that halls don't care about their residents as much as they care about seniors or juniors (no offense to them).
What ended up happening is my roommate and I were given a freshman room, that is, a room reserved for freshman.
We basically kicked a pair of freshman out of our hall, to let in a pair of upperclassmen. In most cases, this wouldn't be a problem.
This brings me to another point: the community aspect of a hall. Schoenfeldt Hall is the newest hall on campus, finished just before this school year.
The community aspect is still being built, and it relies heavily on new residents to build a new community.
Hall Council, as well as other leadership figures can attest to this.
For example, most residents that participate in hall events were the freshmen this year.
That being said, upperclassmen have NOT contributed at all to building community to Schoenfeldt Hall (save a few). We do NOT need anymore upperclassmen in Schoenfeldt Hall, what we need are the sophomores and freshmen. These are the residents that are going to build the community at Padre, which is what the hall needs, and what Residence Life is all about.
What's worse is that they were giving out the suites randomly after my roommate and I went through the process.
They were giving out a random number of freshmen rooms, and then a suite. Mike Walsh told the hall director right in front of our faces to give us the freshmen room, and give the suite to some other students. This happened to numerous people applying for housing, not only to my roommate and I.
It was also unfair of the Office of Residence Life to tell sophomores to be that they could not get suites, because they obviously did.
Many sophomores squatted in their rooms because they believed that they would not be able to get a suite, and if they knew they had the chance, they would have tried.
The many e-mails and confusing information was also the source of frustration for many.
I know the new system was bound to have flaws, but this whole situation could have been prevented if they had stuck to the format that they already had.
Inconsistent, and therefore unfair, room assignments and a lack of communication is what really messed up the housing selection process. This situation MUST be resolved.
Evan Castro is a freshman
mechanical engineering major
