This year’s housing lottery has been accompanied by more worry than usual for some groups of students. Due to the October deadline for the completion of some of the new Village IV residence halls (also called New Village), some of the students assigned to live in these dorms will not be able to move into their own rooms for the first couple months of the fall semester.
According to the housing lottery information packet, these students will be placed in “temporary assignments on campus in Mountainview, Dana and the 23 Village suites that are open.”
This information has concerned students who have been assigned to the new dorms.
“I am a little bit worried about not having the dorms ready by the fall because I am scared of who I will have to live with while they are still being built,” said Caitlin Lashley, a freshman occupational therapy major.
Lashley’s group was one of the groups that had to rearrange itself after the first lottery round was completed. The group originally consisted of eight students and now faces the recently altered Village occupancies. Having experienced several difficulties in the process thus far, Lashley hopes to avoid difficulties by staying with friends during temporary placement.
“If I am put into Dana with the people I was planning on living with anyway, I will not be too upset,” she said. “But if I am separated from my friends and put with disrespectful, messy, loud people, then I will be very unhappy for those first few months.”
Not being able to know who they will be living with is not the only concern of students regarding temporary housing. Another concern is finances.
“In the event that I am placed in a different dorm temporarily, I understand the reasons why,” said Mark Bouchard, a freshman political science major. “I understand that it takes a great deal of time to construct buildings right. However, the thing that would bother me is having to pay the extra fee of living in New Village but not actually living there for some duration of time.”
Due to scheduling conflicts, an interview with a Residential Life official was not available at press time, but is currently being pursued.
Students assigned to the new dorms are not the only ones who are concerned about the outcome of the use of temporary housing. Students who will have additional students placed in their rooms are concerned as well.
“It’s not optimal that we will have to have two random people living with us next year,” said Anthony Fay, a sophomore broadcast journalism major.
While he may not be completely happy with this situation, Fay does also look positively on the circumstances.
“At the very least, we got a room and it’s going to be one of the newest rooms on campus,” he said. “So, for a few weeks, we might have a couple random people living with us, but who knows, we could make two really good new friends.”
The fact that the buildings are brand-new appeals to many of the students who are assigned to these dorms.
“I’m excited to be living in Village IV next year, because the dorm will be nice and new,” said Bouchard. “I’ll be able to enjoy the perks of a brand new building that has not been put through a lot of wear and tear.”
Lashley shares the same opinion.”I am excited to live in New Village because everything will be brand new and undamaged,” she said. “Although I did want to live in the regular suites, I think that I will find myself very satisfied with living in the new buildings instead.”
