Starting this year, the entire room selection process will be conducted online, Residence Life and Housing Services officials announced at Campus Council's general body meeting Thursday night.
"I'm really excited about it," said Eddie Hull, dean of residence life and executive director of housing services. "We've been trying to move the whole process into an electronic environment for several years now. It's finally on our horizon."
Room Pix '07 will run on a platform developed by Residential Management System-a company that has worked with more than 100 schools, said Marijean Williams, director of housing assignments and communications.
"Out-of-the-box products give us a great template, but we had to work with it to make it appear as much like the face-to-face [Room Pix] process as we could online," Williams said, adding that RLHS spent a year and a half developing the new process.
Williams said a test period will be set up in early March to help students adjust to the new process. She added that "satellite offices" will be set up on campus during the selection period to help students.
Students will be given a user name-their Duke unique ID-a randomly generated password and a lottery group instead of the previous lottery number, Williams said.
Jen Frank, program coordinator for RLHS, said there will be a maximum of 12 students in each lottery group of the same gender, who may or may not be in a block together.
Lottery group order will be decided according to room type and seniority, and all members of the same group are able to register online for their room assignment at the same time, Frank said.
Groups' windows will be separated by approximately 10 to 15 minutes, Williams said, noting that RLHS is still working on the exact time frame.
Frank added that once a registration window is open to a lottery group, it will remain open and students can access it any time during Room Pix hours.
Available rooms will be updated live on the website for students to pick from, and once students identify a desired room they may "lock" the room, officials said. Students then have five minutes to decide if they wish to live in the space for the next academic year, after which the room will again be available to everyone.
"Once the students confirm the room, they cannot go back and change it," Williams said.
Only one of the roommates needs to complete the online room confirmation process, she added.
Once students "lock" a room, they must also indicate who their roommate is before they are able to confirm the room, Frank said, noting that user IDs and passwords are needed to confirm roommate selection.
"This will solve the problem for people that won't be free during the registration window," Williams said.
Frank said all statements, such as the housing agreement, will be signed online.
"There will be no more paper involved," she said.
Selective living group residents will undergo a different room selection process depending on their group, Williams said.
Like previous years, students must complete an online application during their designated window in the upcoming weeks, Frank said.
She noted that to complete the application, students need to have their roommate, room type and blocking information ready.
Williams said this move will reduce the amount of time needed for the process.
"We do have a backup plan in case everything goes wrong," she said. "We're hoping that doesn't happen."
Students will also be able to pick their dining options for the next year on the same website, Williams said.
The biggest benefit of the move will be an increase in the efficiency of the Room Pix process and prevention of students picking out of order, officials said.
"This will improve everyone's life here at Duke," said Campus Council President Jay Ganatra, a senior.
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