RLHS creates off-campus pre-lottery

Juniors returning from abroad next Spring will likely be housed in K4. A pre-lottery will notify rising juniors of their off-campus status this Spring.
Juniors returning from abroad next Spring will likely be housed in K4. A pre-lottery will notify rising juniors of their off-campus status this Spring.

Rising juniors planning to go abroad will soon know whether they can live off campus on their return to Duke.

In response to a Nov. 4 recommendation by Campus Council, Residence Life and Housing Services will conduct an off-campus lottery system to allow students planning to go abroad in the Fall to be more confident about making off-campus living arrangements for their return.

The off-campus pre-lottery process will take place this month, M.J. Williams, director of housing accommodations, administration and finance for RLHS, confirmed in a Tuesday email.

“Having this information early will help students establish their living arrangements before leaving for study away,” Williams said.

Current sophomores officially enrolled in a study abroad program by April 15 will be eligible to participate in the pre-lottery and will be emailed about the option April 18, Williams said. Students wishing to live off campus must apply for the lottery by April 22 and will be notified of their lottery numbers April 27. All roommate pairs will be honored, Williams noted, and those who are not released in the pre-lottery may participate in the traditional lottery, which will be held in November.

This year, only 66 students out of 220 who applied were initially granted exemptions in October. This low number prompted Campus Council to recommend that RLHS make the lottery system earlier so that students can plan ahead. Campus Council members argued that the policy should change because many off-campus apartment complexes require that students make down payments early to guarantee housing in the Spring. RLHS granted 99 additional exemptions in November.

Students who were studying abroad last semester expressed frustration that they were not released from the on-campus housing requirement even though they were encouraged to pursue off-campus options before leaving for abroad.

“I was led to believe that being released from the on-campus housing requirement was very probable, in fact, almost certain,” junior Sarah Krueger told The Chronicle in October. “[RLHS officials] even went so far as to encourage me to sign an off-campus apartment lease and put down a deposit, which I did at West Village.”

Campus Council President Stephen Temple, a senior, noted that the creation of a two-tier lottery system will allow students to have “as much information as possible when making their housing decisions coming back from abroad.”

Williams said RLHS is unaware of how many students will be allowed to live off campus, as that figure will be determined by the number of anticipated on-campus vacancies, which is affected by class size and the number of students who decide to go abroad.

Standard RLHS policy requires undergraduates to live on campus for their first three years at the University, but juniors abroad in the Fall may apply to live off campus. RLHS must fill all on-campus space before granting exemptions.

It is too early to know how many students will be abroad in the Fall, Margaret Riley, director of the Global Education Office for Undergraduates, wrote in an email Monday.

“If applications received are any indication, we will be looking at an increase over the past couple years,” she added.

Williams noted that the number of exemptions granted will also be affected by the January 2012 opening of Keohane Quadrangle 4E, the University’s formal name for K4. The building, which will house almost 150 students, will likely be used primarily for students returning from abroad.

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