First-year dorms limit housing options for upperclassmen


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 It was Tuesday, May 16, 6:21 p.m., as I sat at my desk refreshing my student housing portal. As the minute digit on my computer screen changed, I quickly selected the “single room selection” button on the left-hand side of my screen, only to find that there were no rooms left. I contemplated how this could be possible; being a rising junior with a lottery number of 3263, I knew that, while I did not have the best odds, people throughout the years before me with worse odds had been able to select a single room with no issues. The investigative part of my brain began to fire, and I quickly began to text friends and acquaintances, asking about their experiences with this year’s current housing lottery. What I have gathered, or how it appears, is such: this year’s housing lottery was made more selective and competitive by Kohler Hall, Trever Hall and parts of Colman Hall being designated as first-year dorms for the 2023-2024 school year. This has made the housing lottery offer fewer options across the board, especially for rising sophomores and juniors. 

How do we know it is the first-year dorms?  

“There were no single selections available for Kohler or Trever,” said Aidan Harrison, a rising senior with a current lottery number of 2055, who was able to select a Hiett Hall single room. “I saw a few available for Colman, but I assume they were north wing rooms.”  

I was later able to confirm Aidan’s assumption about these Colman single rooms being north wing by another rising junior with a lottery number around the 2200’s, who wishes to remain anonymous. 

As many of you may know, next year Lawrence will be turning three dormitories (Trever, Kohler and the south wing of Colman) into first-year only dorms. It appears that because of this, many singles that would typically have upperclassmen residing in them have become unavailable, making the total number of single rooms available for selection via housing lottery decrease significantly. 

Some students, myself included, have found this particularly frustrating because as we spend more years on campus, we expect to have more housing options available for us to choose from; that is how the lottery system is supposed to operate. Yes, there will be some that have to get the short end of the stick in every year, as it’s possible to get the worst rising senior lottery number and not get as many options as those who get to choose before you, but this year, the end of the stick got a whole lot shorter. 

“Yeah, I got a single in Plantz for this year,” stated Ben Campbell, a rising senior who had a number of 3291 during the housing lottery last year. “When I was choosing, there were some single rooms left in Plantz, Brokaw, and Trever.”  

The fact that Ben was able to select a single—and decide between three buildings—helps to highlight the fact that the lottery this year gave fewer options for rising juniors. 

As Lawrentians, we are told that there are many advantages to living on a residential campus as opposed to one that allows for more off-campus housing. We are also told that while we may not get the best rooms in our first few years on campus, by our junior and senior years, we will have better odds of selecting the kind of room we want, as well as the actual dorm building. The introduction of first-year dorms has diminished these odds by a significant degree, failing to meet the expectations given to us. 

I get it, you may say: because some of the singles in these dorm buildings were made unavailable, you and many other rising juniors were not able to get a single. But how does this affect those of us who don’t want a single room? In other words, why should you even care so long as you have a roommate? 

As someone with a higher lottery number than rising juniors and sophomores, the fact that I get to select a double room before you mean that you will now have fewer options available when you go to select your room this Tuesday, May 23. If I, as well as many others, have to pick a double room with a decent lottery number, we will most likely be more inclined to pick some of the campus-favorite dorms, leaving those in the higher end of the 3000’s and over with what’s leftover.  

This is not a situation where there are fewer options for the few—it is a situation where there are fewer opportunities for the many rising sophomores and juniors. 

How do we solve this? 

There are many solutions, such as opening the single rooms in these dorms for selection, renovating various spaces, allowing off-campus housing in the future, etc.. While there have been whispers of these solutions throughout the year, so far, there has been a lack of transparency from Residential Education on their plans to address the matter. 

I do have confidence that there will be some changes made in the new future in a more positive direction as it relates to housing options, but for now, I’ll start making plans to find a roommate.