Across the Mount Carmel Campus, students can hear the overwhelming number of complaints about sophomore housing for the 2013-2014 school year.
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Similar to past years, on April 1, the lottery numbers for current freshmen students were released. On April 15 and 16, the housing registration opened up for freshmen and the frustration and anxiety began.
The Hill was the first housing to be filled, followed by the Village, according to residential life. By approximately lottery number 200, the residential housing that were not completely filled were Complex, Perlroth and Troup.
Many students did not plan ahead and were paired with groups of seven, hoping that they would be living in Hill or Village. However, the suites are made for groups of eight, according to Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Cindy Long Porter. When students realized that they needed eight people to form a room, they became stressed and angry, like freshman Nicolette Silviano.
“I was extremely upset when I continued to see the room availability in Village decline because I knew that we would need to find more girls to live with if we had to live in Perlroth or Troup,” Silviano said.
However, the many rumors about sophomores living at York Hill are not true. The university has more than enough beds for the sophomores and incoming freshmen, Porter said. There are about 30 current freshman students who paid their deposit, but have not selected housing according to Porter. These students will not be randomly placed; they will work with Associate Director of Residential Life Melissa Karipidis to incorporate their preferences so that the students are as happy and comfortable as possible.
Transfer students will live in the same areas as students in their expected grade. They will be placed with other transfers, but their location will be based on grade, which means if they have the same credits as juniors and seniors, they will live at York Hill.
“We try to put the people with their class because with our experience we have found that our Quinnipiac students identify with their class,” Porter said.
Porter says she understands that students want to live with their friends.
“Students sometimes forget that when they were freshmen, they had to live with people they didn’t know, and for the most part it worked out,” Porter said.
Out of the 1,787 freshmen students who enrolled at Quinnipiac last year, 96 percent lived on campus. Although this number has changed with the amount of transfers both in and out, admissions expected a return rate of 87 percent, according to Vice President for Admissions and Financial Aid, Joan Isaac Mohr.
This year alone, 93 percent of current freshmen, 75 percent of current sophomores and 51 percent of current juniors have paid their housing deposit for next year, according to Residential Life. With the growing number of students attending and living at Quinnipiac, Residential Life found it necessary to move-around the housing on the Mount Carmel Campus.
Many students complained about the change of keeping Mountainview for freshmen and settling sophomores in suites, saying that suites are not comparable.
“I was lucky enough to still be able to live with my friends, but it is just frustrating having to live in the suites because I feel that we are paying the same amount of money for very different housing,” freshman Kim Schaefer said.
However, this was not the same complaint three years ago, Porter said. Three years ago the suites were sophomore housing, but because of the number of students, Residential Life began to put freshmen in the suites. At this time, students were angered because they felt that the suites were more enjoyable for sophomores rather than Mountainview.
“It is all based on your experience,” Porter said. “The suites are in excellent condition for sophomores to live as well.”
Without counting the number for incoming freshman, Quinnipiac has approximately 3,900 beds for seniors, juniors and sophomores, Porter explained. This means that only 6 percent of students living on campus are not happy with where they are living, she said.
“At the end of the day we are talking a small pocket of students,” Porter said.
Due to student feedback, Residential Life has looked at changing the way that the lottery works, Porter said, but after analyzing the situation they felt that this is the fairest way.
“For the overwhelming majority of students, this process works and is fine,” she said. “If you are in that small percentage of people that did not get what you wanted and you had to re-shape your group, there is nothing we can say to change your mind that this is a good process.”