The Office of Residential Life is finalizing sweeping changes to the housing assignment process that would give students a single housing number and seniors top choice of on-campus housing.
Associate Dean of Residential Life Bud Beatty said ORL will finalize the draft proposal by the middle of February and will go into effect for the Fall term.
The major changes in the process include a $100 dollar non-refundable application fee, housing numbers prioritized by class year and the inability to pull in clustermates, Beatty said.
The current housing plan works under a two number system and assigns no priority to any class for securing on-campus housing. The new plan will cut the process down to one step, Beatty said.
"Once we pick up an application, we won't put it down until we assign the student a bed or to the wait list," he said.
Beatty said he still expected a Fall term wait list under the new process, but that it should be smaller.
Under the proposal, ORL will use room type preference as the main factor in assigning housing. Students will request a room type and then list his or her preference of residence halls.
If the requested room type is not available in the first-choice hall, then the second choice hall will be considered.
Students who wish to live in their Coed Fraternity and Sorority house or undergraduate society must also apply for College housing in case there is no room in the house. ORL hopes to fill all the CFS houses and undergraduate societies with members before assigning the rest of the campus to housing, the proposal said.
But the proposal has no plans to penalize CFS members who apply for residence hall housing and then move into their house if they are unsatisfied with their assignment.
A small group of administrators and students has been working on the plan since mid-October, Beatty said. "The primary goal was to simplify the process."
The committee met with Undergraduate Advisors Tuesday to discuss the proposal, Beatty said. The committee will meet tomorrow to finalize its recommendations.
The $100 application fee will help ensure only students who are serious about obtaining on-campus housing will apply, Beatty said.
A draft proposal said the fee "will be credited against the original room-rent charge once the room assignment has been made."
Students applying to live in privately owned Greek houses and undergraduate societies will not have to pay the $100 application fee.
Students who decide to withdraw from the process will only receive a refund if they transfer, go on an off-campus program, get off the wait list before obtaining a room assignment or decide to live in a Greek or undergraduate society house.
But students must withdraw their name from the housing list before registration or they will forfeit their application fee, Beatty said.
The numbers are prioritized by class, Beatty said. Seniors receive the best numbers, followed by juniors and sophomores. According to Beatty, this process will mean "99.8 percent of the time" only sophomores will be placed on the wait list.
Under the new proposal, cluster choice will still be considered but will not override the student's room-type preference.
"We want to give you the best room available in the cluster based on room type," he said.
The proposal said students will be able to select up to three students as roommates. According to Beatty, the cluster pull-in system, designed to have friends live with each other, was often abused.
For instance, Elizabeth Rybicki '96, a member of the housing committee, said people would pay each other to get pulled in.
Rybicki said she thinks the main change in the plan is "choosing who you live with is more important than where you live."
Rybicki said she hopes the application fee will cut down on the wait list problem.
