Smack between midterms and final exams, the time has come for students to plan where they would like to live next year. The lottery for North and South Campus residence halls begins March 29 and is supposed to end April 9.
As soon as students send in their deposit for housing for next year, they are eligible for a lottery number, which is distributed randomly within a set of criteria.
Shelia Pinckney, associate director for Housing Operations, said these criteria include class standing, number of years the student has lived on campus, and whether or not the student has taken an active role in hall councils or participated in the Anti-Rape Task Force.
This year, University Residence Halls and Apartments is making a vast departure from normal procedure in order to ensure that all students have a fair chance and are not inconvenienced. The entire process will be conducted over the Internet to avoid making students wait in line for hours to choose where they want to live.
"I wish they had done room selection this way when I was a freshman. I waited for a long time in order to get a room," said Jordana Stauber, a senior communication major. "It would have made things a lot easier."
"Last year, single room students were able to sign online if they wanted to retain a room, and roommate pull-in was also done online. This year the final phase selection will be done online also," said Pinckney.
Also, the averaging of numbers between roommates has been eliminated.
"This, year instead of averaging roommates numbers together, the roommate with the lowest lottery number will be able to pick the room they want, and then they can pull in their roommate," said Pinckney.
"I was a little nervous about room selection based on what I have heard from other people in past years. Now that it is done online and my number won't have to be averaged I feel a lot better about it," said Pam Rosen, a freshman social sciences major.
"When my roommates and I picked rooms freshman year, we had to go by our average, which brought our lottery number down," said social sciences senior Lindsay Brown. "There were three of us living together and if I could have just used my number, which was the highest, we could have gotten a much better room than we did."
Right after students returned from spring break, they received a booklet with their lottery number and a time to access the system for room selection.
Students will be able to go online, and follow the step-by-step instructions explained in the booklet.
"We are certainly preparing for anything," said Pinckney. "We are not anticipating any problems. If there is a problem we will be able to get information to students if necessary."
The lottery numbers will not be campus specific, so the campus a student lives on this year will have no bearing on what campus he or she can live on next year.
"I am happy that I will have the opportunity to live on North Campus next year. I liked South Campus, but it was a little bit of a hassle to go to get to class when they were all on North Campus," said Sara Koenig, a freshman communication major.
The other good thing about the online system for room selection is that students can actually go online and see what rooms are available.
"This will be good for students because they can see what is available, and go look at the rooms before room selection even begins," said Pinckney.
Students are advised to go to www.ub-housing.buffalo.edu to check out what rooms are available.
