Sophomore housing selection moves online

The sophomore housing selection process was revamped and moved online this year. The Housing Office introduced this new method in order to reduce competition and improve ease of use. The Class of 2019 was divided about the success of the new process with many students expressed frustrations about miscommunication from the Housing Office.

Tracey Angel, director of Housing and Operations, discussed how this year’s process differed from that of previous years.

“The main difference between past years and this year is technology and ease of use for students,” Angel wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “In the past, students registered for room selection online, were given a random group lottery number and would come to an in-person process and wait their turn for an hour or more. It was very stressful for students. In the new process, students choose their unit/room online in a 20 minute time block. With this new process, students are able to sign their contracts electronically and choose a meal plan in the comfort of their own rooms.”

Students were emailed their assigned time slot on Wednesday, March 9 after signing up online as a single or in groups of two, three or four. The selection process began on Monday, March 21 with those who registered in groups of two or more. People who registered for singles selected their room the following day.

Angel feels this transition from the in-person to online-based housing process is important because many universities have already adopted an online method.

“We felt strongly that the move from an in-person process to an online process was a huge step forward. Many of our peer institutions had invested in a housing software where students are able to choose their housing online,” Angel wrote. “The difficulties have been behind the scenes. There was a lot of work involving transfer of data and setting up multiple processes/interfaces. Staff has spent many months getting this accomplished in time for room selection this year.”

However, the Housing Office struggled to inform students about the new method in the weeks leading up to the week of room selection. Informational meetings about room selection held in the AMR I Multi-Purpose Room in late February and early March could not seat the number of students who were interested in learning about the new process.

Moreover, Housing Portal Demos scheduled to take place in Shaffer 3 on Thursday, March 10 were cancelled due to scheduling conflicts. The Housing Portal Demo was sent to students through an email instead.

“In order to prepare the students for this process we held multiple information sessions and informational booths as well as small group meetings with random student groups and countless hours of portal testing,” Angel wrote. “We faced challenges in educating students on the new system and encouraging our staff members to think outside the box in terms of the possibilities of a new process. We spent months inviting key stakeholders and students to learn and experience the new housing software. As with any change, obstacles will continue arise but we are now well prepared to answer and respond to questions even in the most unique of circumstances.”

Many freshmen voiced frustrations about what they felt was a lack of communication. Freshman Jess Miller-Suchet split up her group of four into two groups of two people in order to have a better chance at getting Commons, Homewood or Bradford. Students could watch a page of available rooms that was updated every 10 minutes.

“I’ve been watching [the page] kind of obsessively. All the quads for Commons, Bradford and Homewood are gone, and they were gone by 6 p.m. so everyone is in McCoy now if they’re in a quad, unless they decide to gamble and wait until the next day,” Miller-Suchet said.

Freshman Jon Silveira explained that a rumor had gone around the student body that the final time slot was 11 p.m. when in fact it was 8:40 p.m., so many students slotted for 6 p.m. or later believed they had a good chance at getting the housing that they wanted. The information that the final time slot was 8:40 p.m. could be found on the Hopkins at Home website that was linked in emails sent out to students, but it was not explicitly stated in the emails.

“We thought that it was going to end at 11 because that’s what someone told everyone. Since we thought we were in the first half of [the time slots], we thought that there would be room for us [in Commons],” Silveira said. “We went with the preconceived idea that it was going to be fine. Had we had better communication, we would’ve made a different decision.”

Freshman Jenna Bellantoni had also believed the final time slot was 11 p.m., and as a result her group was unable to secure an 11-month housing plan to stay at Hopkins over the summer.

“My group of four had 8:20, and the last time slot was 8:40. If we had known that, we would have split up because we all wanted Commons 11-month,” Bellantoni said.

On the other hand, some students were lucky. Freshman Eva Izquierdo had the first time slot at 3 p.m. on Monday afternoon and is content with how her housing turned out.

“We were super excited knowing that we could plan everything out way beforehand because we were in the first time slot to choose. We already decided that we wanted to live in Commons when we made our group of four, and instead of us choosing based on room size we wanted to get a room with a nice view,” Izquierdo said. “We got the room we wanted.”

Angel said that since the online room selection process is new, the Housing Office is still working to improve it.

“Unexpected problems will continue to arise, but being able to resolve them quickly and with minimal disruption to the students will always be paramount,” Angel wrote. “We will continue to assess the student experience so that we can improve the system even further for next year.”