There are numerous stressful points throughout your college career, but I would have to rank CNU’s housing lottery in my top 5. In an ideal world, you could just gather up a group of friends, choose a residence hall and select the perfect room. Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world. By this, I mean that when housing lottery time rolls around, you can only plan so much – then, you just have to hope the system works in your favor.
Thankfully, the two times I have gone through the lottery, my roomies and I have gotten our exact choice (meaning Warwick River Hall this year and Wilson in the CNU Village next year). But, I have numerous friends who have not had the odds in their favor during the lottery, causing them to have to shuffle plans at the last minute. Whether that meant cutting or adding roommates or switching to a new residence hall, it is stressful.
I know my Class of 2016 is one of the larger ones populating campus, and this has provoked some housing problems for us. Freshman year, Santoro Hall was known for its staggering amount of tripled rooms; when it came time to find somewhere to live for sophomore year, two of the three sophomore residence halls had filled up by the second day of the housing lottery.
It is somewhat comforting knowing that the housing department on campus is working overtime to make sure everyone has a home for next semester, but there are times when I wish the system worked a bit differently. While I haven’t been burned by the lottery (yet!), I can sympathize with those who have. It’s tough to add worrying about where you’re going to live to the massive amount of day-to-day college stressors.
I’m one of those people who doesn’t like raising a problem without actively working on a solution, but the issue of the housing lottery has me stumped. So, what do you all think? Would you keep CNU’s current housing selection process, or do you have something even more efficient in mind?
