With upperclassman housing selection occurring, the Concordiensis discussed the housing selection process with Amanda Iverson, the Director of Residential Life.
This April, rising sophomores, juniors and seniors have to select their housing for the 2023-2024 academic year. Students have residence halls (Davidson, Webster, and College Park Hall), apartments in the College Park neighborhood, theme houses, Minerva houses, and Greek Life houses to choose from. Each on-campus housing unit holds between 1 to 4 people, and students are selected to live in each unit by application systems and lottery-based selection times. Upperclassmen are able to choose who they live with, or if they would like to live in a single occupancy room.
Though about 90% of students live on campus, some students are also released to live off campus, and others commute from their parents’ homes in the area. “When enrollment exceeds our capacity, we need to release a small number of rising seniors from the residential requirement. This is done through an application process that includes essays, community service and conduct standing,” Amanada Iverson, the Director of Residential Life, said. In January, rising seniors are allowed to apply to be released from on campus housing, and are allowed to rent residences off campus.
In February, students are eligible to apply to live in Theme and Minerva houses. Selection for these houses is done through application processes, and applicants to Theme Houses are notified of their acceptance in early March. Minerva residents are able to apply to live in their house, or to a friend’s house, given that they are applying to be roommates with a friend. Applicants to Minerva houses are ranked, and then given a housing selection time based on their rank. This year, applicants to Minerva houses went through a housing lottery process on April 18, and were able to select rooms in the Minerva houses they applied to. At the end of the selection process, applicants are also able to choose open rooms in other Minerva houses.
Members of Greek organizations are required to live in their Greek house for 3 terms, and “these terms can be split over academic years if [a student is] going abroad. If the chapter house does not meet the minimum occupancy, [students] may be restricted from being released off campus and/or participating in the apartment, general, or Minerva housing lottery,” according to the Greek life housing contract. Greek houses are required to have an average of a 92% housing occupancy rate, and are fined $3,000 per bed under that occupancy rate.
Other housing selections are done through a lottery process. “All lottery times are assigned randomly within each class year, with rising seniors receiving the first times, then rising juniors, then rising sophomores. They are randomly generated through the housing software system,” Iverson said. This year, on April 20, groups of 3 to 4 juniors and seniors were able to participate in the housing lottery for the apartments in the college park neighborhood. On April 26 and 27, the remainder of students will be able to participate in the housing lottery for College Park Hall, Davidson Hall, and Webster House. College Park Hall has single and double occupancy rooms, Webster House holds 1-3 people per room, and Davidson House has 4 person suites with 2 people per room.
Students studying abroad also have an impact on housing. Students typically study abroad for one term in a year, but then live on campus for the other two terms. In order to prepare for this, “we use reports that collect years of data and identify trends and projections to make decisions about housing. This includes data around the number of students studying abroad, as well as the typical number of students who leave in term, at the end of each term, etc. Those data points influence our on-campus enrollment, which ultimately influences how many students we need to release off-campus in order to reach our goal of guaranteeing housing for all students,” Iverson said.
First year student housing also works differently; first year students have to fill out a housing questionnaire, and are unable to choose their roommates. Once students fill out the questionnaire, “our housing software generates the best possible matches using the information students provide,” Iverson said. First year students are able to live in Richmond House, West College, and Fox House. West and Richmond typically house 2 people per room, and Fox houses suites with 4 people in 2 rooms.
Current students are able to choose their housing on the MyHousing portal on SelfService. If students have any questions or concerns, they can contact the housing department at [email protected].
This article was originally published in the print edition of Concordiensis on April 27, 2023.
