The trials and travails of Room Draw

Last week, students lined up for the annual room draw event. They contended with long lines and longer waits as they jockeyed for their desired rooms.

The room draw process often varies from year to year, but 2013 signaled the introduction of an online roommate matching program, as well as a two-tiered process for determining room draw order. This year, room draw order was determined by the order at which participants arrived at the room draw event as well as the total number of contracts per roommate group.

Third-year Ashley Frost said that room draw was more disorganized in years past.

“I didn’t like the time-stamp procedure,” said Frost. “I get what they were trying to correct but it seems unfair because a lot of people have class before room draw.”

There were also changes in housing designations and room eligibility. Returning students were not permitted to apply for rooms in the Pei buildings. Other changes included moving the quiet dorms from X building to Z Dorm, as well as creating the college’s first ever substance-free dorm. According to the Housing Campus Life Coordinator Aaron Baker, there was a high demand for quiet and substance-free housing.

“There were a lot of room changes in the beginning of the year which, regardless if they did or did not participate in those types of activities, they did not want to have it outside their doorstep,” Baker said.

The use of illegal or illegally obtained substances and the use of smoked tobacco products in individual rooms as well as the consumption of alcohol in shared spaces will be prohibited in Y Dorm for the upcoming 2013-2014 school year.

The substance-free community will be able to set its own standards, in collaboration with Housing and their building R.A.

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