To prepare for the inevitable fluctuations in demand for student housing as students leave and return to campus for the spring, Residence Life and Housing Services is instituting a housing lottery for juniors who want to live off campus next semester.
Although the University anticipates that space will become available in all room types on West Campus and in all apartment types on Central Campus at the turn of the semester, administrators do not yet know how many of each will be available once all students--including those studying abroad, taking leaves of absence, withdrawing from the University or graduating early--are taken into account.
Bill Burig, assistant dean for RLHS, wrote in an e-mail to the Class of 2005 that the task of assigning housing is particularly complex this year, due to "the additional enforcement of the three-year [on-campus housing] requirement and the unsettled world situation."
Both Burig and Director of Residence Life and Housing Services Eddie Hull said, however, that the University will not be rethinking the three-year requirement as a result of a possible bed crunch.
Juniors have been informed that if they wish to be released from the Housing License for Spring 2004, they must complete a Housing Release Request Form by Oct. 31.
"We really won't know what the numbers look like until after Oct. 31," Burig said. "This is the deadline for the return of information from the students who are away to file their requests and for the students on campus to let us know their plans."
Students will be notified of a release from the Housing License Nov. 10.
Burig said students who are released from the Housing License should have ample time to find off-campus housing and that the University will provide information to help students toward that end.
"We will be distributing contact information for a number of area apartment complexes to the students who are released," Burig said.
In his e-mail to the Class of 2005, Burig explained that the lottery, which will determine the possible order of release from the Housing License, will be available both to students living on campus and to those currently away from Durham. Separate lotteries will be held for men and women.
Hull said the lottery seemed the fairest way to determine who was released from the Housing License. Students will not be released from the Housing License unless all campus beds are full.
"We are implementing a lottery to provide as equal a chance as possible to those students who may want to live of campus next semester," Hull said.
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