University housing will not be available for all 1,618 students in the Class of 2020 for its last year at Quinnipiac. An email was sent to the class on Tuesday, Oct. 16 regarding the senior housing selection process.

“In past years, we have been able to provide university-owned housing to every senior who participated in our selection process,” according to the email sent by Residential Life. “However, it is still important to understand that we have a limited number of units available for seniors – so don’t miss this November selection process.”

The Quinnipiac housing selection process is usually stressful for the student body, and with this email, things have appeared to stir even more tension within the current junior class.

This information has concerned junior nursing major Emily Chmura. She said that although she has no intention of living in on-campus housing next year, she feels sympathetic toward those who do.

[media-credit name=”Graphic by Janna Marnell” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]“I know if I was planning to live on campus or if I was just at this point in the year unsure about where I was going to live, I would want to have the option to know safely and securely that I could be able to get a place,” Chmura said. “I think it’s a little unfair. I don’t know what they would do to fix it, but something needs to be done.”

Junior graphic and interactive design major Sarah Vandevaart said that the university seems to be more concerned with accepting new students than accommodating the current ones it has.

“I just think they don’t really put the students first in any housing process, especially when they have one senior building right now,” Vandevaart said. “The class that they accepted had way more students than they have planned, and they haven’t really figured that out housing wise. So I just don’t think it’s fair for people who can’t necessarily live off campus and have to just rely on the fact that they just have to get lucky.”

In spite of the email saying that not all rising seniors are guaranteed housing, Director of Residential Life Mark DeVilbiss said the university has never had to turn anyone away from housing in previous years.

“It has been true for a while that we have not had enough beds to accommodate the whole senior class. There are well over 1,000 seniors and we’ve never had that many beds,” DeVilbiss said. “What I can tell you though is that historically, we’ve always been able to meet the whole need of everybody who wanted housing in the senior area, so we’ve never had to turn anyone away because there wasn’t enough housing.”

DeVilbiss hopes that juniors will not be worried about the senior housing email because he said that regardless of what housing they end up getting, each housing option has its own set of benefits.

The following university owned housing options available to the Class of 2020 are Eastview, which is located on the York Hill campus and university-owned houses on New Road, Lucien Drive, Ives Street, Kimberly Avenue, Woodruff Street and Westwoods Road. There will also be new housing options made available off campus, according to the email.

“We’re delighted to have a lot of different spaces, a lot of variety. We have some nice amenities in Eastview which is mostly singles with a few doubles, but it’s a very nice residence hall,” DeVilbiss said. “In the houses, I think it’s neat to have the opportunity to live amongst friends in a neighborhood kind of feeling, because many of the QU houses are close to other QU houses which I think lends to a feeling of community amongst the students in the houses.”

DeVilbiss said seniors will have an even greater ability to develop individuality by living off campus. Students should be reminded there are still residential assistants for the senior area who facilitate programs and other activities, as well as provide support for their residents as needed.

“The landlord is the university, so it’s a familiar person, it’s an institution, and we do the work orders. We do the billing,” DeVilbiss said. “You can pay through the bursar, and financial aid can be applied as appropriate based on a person’s individual circumstances, so it’s a nice transition.”

DeVilbiss said that in case a student is unable to receive the housing they want, the university does its best to assist them.

“We have a waiting list for one thing, so if somebody had their heart set on being in Eastview for example and the spaces were full, we keep a waiting list, and we’ll keep that in case a space becomes available,” DeVilbiss said. “If they want to explore options in the community, we have some resources that we can share with folks and they’re actually available on MyQ. There’s some contact information on a company that we work with that helps students.”

The main point that DeVilbiss wants to make is there has always been enough housing for all of the students who wanted housing from the university. The only way that students will not have housing available to them is if every single rising senior wanted university housing.

“If everyone in the senior class all wanted housing from QU, there would not be enough spaces for every member of the Class of 2020,” DeVilbiss said. “We find that many students wish to rent in the community and at the end of the day, those who wish to are able to do so, and we’ve always been able to meet the needs of everyone who wanted to live in QU housing.”

In order to participate in the senior housing selection process, juniors must pay a $500 housing deposit and agree to the senior housing contact by Nov. 4.