Sophomores at Keene State College (KSC) last week were scrambling to figure out their housing plan for the 2017-2018 academic year.
All college underclassmen are required to live on campus.
Samantha Moore / Art Drector
All sophomores participate in an online housing lottery. Sophomores are given a specific time on the day of the lottery to sign up for where they want to live.
The Assistant Director of housing operations for Residential Life and housing services, Debra Barrett, stated how lottery times are chosen, “The sophomore housing lottery was held on March 24 this year. Lottery selection times are randomly generated and are not weighed by GPA, student involvement and any other criteria.”
There are numerous options for students to pick from for the next semester, “Options for sophomore housing include: Owl’s Nests, One Butler Court, Pondside one, Pondside three and also some singles in Carle and Holloway,” Barrett stated.
Upcoming Keene State College Sophomore, Bianca Passacantilli, stated that her group of roommates got lucky with their times. She said, “My lottery time was at 12:12 p.m., but one of the girls in my suite had a 9:05 a.m. time,” she stated.
She went on to talk about her pick and how her group came to terms last minute on where they wanted to live and who they wanted to live with. She said, “We were hoping to get an eight person suite in Butler and we did. It was a little hard because at first we had an odd number, but then finally right before the lottery we found our eighth person,” she stated.
Passacantilli stated why they chose Butler over all of the other housing options, “Butler was our first pick because we live in Holloway and it’s basically a step up from where we are now. I love having my own bathroom and not sharing it with the rest of the floor. Also, having air conditioning is a big plus for me,” she stated.
Barrett explained that this process doesn’t always go so smoothly. Barrett said, “Yes, we have received complaints from students about their set times, but we explain to everyone that lottery times are completely random.”
Barrett continued by stating that residential life and housing services chooses to conquer these complaints in one of two ways, “If a student is unable to select housing during the section event, they are automatically placed on a waitlist and our office will work with them to find suitable housing.
Or if a student is unable to select a housing assignment in their preferred hall or room type, they can request a room change through our office and again, we will work with them to find suitable housing based on the vacancies that become available,” she claimed.
Even with these options, Passacantilli said she still wishes the lottery could be done differently.
“Honestly, I feel like the lottery was kind of stressful. If one of my suitemates didn’t have her 9:05 a.m. lottery time, I don’t know where we would be living next year. It was just crazy to me that by 9:40 a.m., Butler and Pondside three were both completely empty. Those dorms were pretty much everyone’s first choices,” she stated.
Grace Kelly can be contacted at gkelly@kscequinox.com
