Vox Clamantis Suddenly Seeking Housing
By Rachel Bernhard, The Dartmouth Staff
Published on Tuesday, March 4, 2008
To the Editor:
It is inconceivable that ORL did not give notice of the housing cap to rising seniors sooner, particularly for off-campus students such as myself, who received this notice in the mail only yesterday ("College to house 100 fewer seniors next year," Feb. 26). I had initially thought my room draw number would be more than sufficient to secure a decent room, hopefully in one of the new buildings. Now I am forced to scan for apartment listings on infrequently updated websites.
I certainly sympathize with sophomores and juniors who have an erratic and often-changing D-plan. I've applied for housing from a different continent, I've changed my D-plan after the deadline, and I've been without a consistent roommate since freshman year. It sucks.
However, why should someone who may be on-campus once during the fall-winter-spring year have a stronger claim to a nice room than I do? Why can't ORL help seniors find places that accommodate their needs? Trying to find, say, a single within walking distance of campus that costs something comparable to College housing with six months notice is more difficult than it sounds.
I've done the room-draw slumming, "Hey, need a third?" before. It doesn't work and is grossly desperate to watch, let alone do. ORL could coordinate with rising seniors farther in advance to make the process easier. A relatively simple survey could tell them how many people would like to live in coed, fraternity and sorority, undergraduate society or affinity housing, off-campus and so on. With a little effort and advance notification, everyone would be better off. Until then, I guess I'll be room-draw slumming for senior year.