The Office of Student Development announced Tuesday that it plans to change several aspects of the housing selection process for next year's independents-measures governed by seniority and designed to instill more structure to the process and grant students more freedom in choosing where they live. The alterations came after a four-month investigation conducted by the Housing Assignment Process Committee, which comprises both students and administrators.
"We wanted students to be more in control of the outcome," said Bill Burig, assistant dean of student development, "and while the outcome may be just as frustrating for some students as it was in the past, at least they'll understand why they've been assigned what they've been assigned."
Perhaps the most significant modification pertains to the traditional "room pick" process for independents wishing to live in a West Campus dormitory for the first time or in a Central Campus apartment. Rather than selecting rooms from a dorm assigned by Burig, these students will now report to the first floor of East Campus' Crowell Building, home of the Office of Student Development, where they will pick their rooms from all those remaining during a specified one-and-a-half-hour time slot. The first of these sessions is scheduled for March 10.
The room pick process will remain the same for students who will live in selective houses and who plan to return to their current independent house.
Because the new lottery system maximizes the capacities of all rooms, it therefore abolishes the waiting list. "There won't be people waiting until August to find out where they're going to live," said Trinity junior Chris Lam, Duke Student Government vice president for student affairs and a member of the committee.
Burig said the old method was both time-consuming and disorganized, as students often found themselves standing around in commons rooms competing for spaces within that given house. "It was a pain in the ass for everybody," Burig said.
The new measures are intended, in particular, to benefit those students rejected from Central Campus or whose block requests were denied.
Previously, students denied Central housing were placed in Trent Dormitory, which many students consider the University's least desirable housing option. Under the new plan, these students will be assigned to the general residence hall lottery-a move the University hopes will cure the racial imbalance in Trent.
While Burig plans to maintain the 67 percent block approval rate, he said all members of approved blocks-to be limited to groups of four, six or eight-will now be assigned to contiguous rooms or apartments on any upperclass campus rather than be scattered. The remaining 33 percent of blocks will be separated and thrown back into the general residence hall lottery.
Burig said that in order to circumvent the last-minute, University-wide rush to fill out the online housing surveys-a situation that plagued his office last year-the Office of Student Development will divide the housing survey process into two different phases.
The first phase, scheduled for March 2-7, pertains to those students returning to their current independent residence halls or Central apartments, students joining selective houses, students requesting either three-bedroom apartments or block housing and students not requesting housing for next fall.
The second phase, March 24-29, concerns all students who were unsuccessful in the general residence hall or Central lotteries, or whose block requests were denied. The former group will be randomly ordered together and, as a result, those not receiving Central apartments will not lose seniority.
Burig will attach a closing date to each housing survey window this year in order to circumvent the barrage of congestion that resulted from the rush of last year's open-ended format.
Burig emphasized that although blocks register during the first phase, they will not have priority over other independents in the second phase.
"Even though, in calendar order, blocks come first, they won't receive priority," Burig said. "We won't be choosing blocks of rooms in the best buildings on campus."
An additional change for next year involves rooms in selective houses not filled by their members. These spaces were previously filled by people on the housing waiting list, but will now be made available to all phase two participants.
The Office of Student Development will hold two information sessions today: One will occur at 8 p.m. in House EE, and the other at 10 p.m. in Hastings Dorm.
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