We at The Lawrentian commend the Campus Life Office and the LUCC Residence Life Committee on their recent efforts to improve the housing selection process. In the April 23, 2010 issue of The Lawrentian, we suggested that the housing website stood in desperate need of a redesign. Since then, the Campus Life Office has made significant improvements to their website.
The new website is well organized, with readily-accessible links to information such as residence hall descriptions, floor plans and a clear, step-by-step guide to the housing selection process. Before, information such as important dates were scattered on different pages, making it difficult to locate relevant information. Now, dates are listed on a permanent sidebar on the housing homepage, and “links of interests” with helpful FAQs have found their way to the site.
With the addition of more photos, we believe the website will better assist incoming and current students in their housing plans. Additionally, Brokaw Hall is not included on the housing website, and many students do indeed live there. While Brokaw is not a primary residence hall, students may benefit from having its information listed on the housing website.
Assistant Dean of Students for campus life Curt Lauderdale has commented on these suggestions, stating that the Campus Life Office is still working on improvements. They will be taking internal pictures of residence halls once rooms are vacant over the summer and are currently composing the page for Brokaw Hall. Further efforts will also be made to make the site as a whole easier to navigate.
Recently, students were notified via email that Hiett Hall will be completely gender neutral next year. The LUCC Residence Life Committee conducted a survey of current Hiett residents’ opinions and made their decision accordingly. We applaud the inclusion of students into this housing decision. However, many underclassmen students might also benefit from the option of gender neutral housing. In the future, LUCC Residence Life Committee could extend a survey to more residence halls, allowing more students to live in a gender neutral environment, if they so choose.
Overall, we commend and thank the Campus Life Office and the Residence Life Committee for taking student suggestions into serious consideration.