Junior, Senior Room Draw Brings Stress

By: Nicole Baillargeon
Posted In: News

About 70 current sophomores and juniors at Salve Regina University piled into the O’Hare lecture room 260 on Oct. 30, to learn about the upcoming room draw.

For many students at Salve, the room draw can be more stressful than final exams. It can be especially stressful for sophomores who live in Hunt Hall, a freshman dorm this year because they received a bad room draw time. “We got stuck in Hunt, and we could get bad times again,” said Nealyn Dunlop, an environmental science major, about her and her two roommates.

If it’s such a time of stress, why don’t students just find off campus housing since it is no longer a requirement to live on campus once students become juniors? “We can’t find an apartment off campus,” said Dunlop. “And it’s more convenient.”

Lindsay Sayward, a sophomore chemistry major also believed it to be easier to live on campus not only for the convenience, but also because she felt that “it is too soon to live off campus,” she said. “It’s too much responsibility, plus I can’t parallel park.”

The junior/senior room draw is already behind schedule, according to Joe Lomastro, the Senior Assistant Director of Residential Life for Housing and Operations. Normally the draw would occur in October, but has now been pushed back until February 12 because students felt rushed to look for off campus housing, Lomastro said.

For next year’s juniors and seniors wanting to live on campus, they are required to give a $200 check or money order deposit to the Office of Residential life to secure them a spot in the draw. Residential Life will start taking the deposits on November 1 and accept them until December 1, or until 100 deposits are taken. The $200 will be credited to the student’s account.

After the 100 spots are filled, the other students will be placed on a waiting list, and are not required to hand in the deposit until they are guaranteed a spot, since the checks are non-refundable.

The room draw however will not be based on who got their checks in first; instead their names will be placed in a computer and randomly mixed.

The number of students per on campus apartment ranges from 3 to 9 people. The apartments that hold 9 people on the other hand, will probably be filled by room rather than the whole house, Lomastro said. As for how the housing will be split for males and females, “I hope to give away whole apartments for men and women,” he said.

The small houses will most likely be given to females, as well as most of Nethercliffe. Fairlawn and Stoneacre will most likely be given to the males. Yet, this also depends on how many males want to live on campus. According to Lomastro, that ratio is usually 85 females to 15 males.

As for the students who plan on studying abroad for the fall semester, there is no need for them to participate in the room draw, Lomastro said. Those students will replace the students who are going abroad spring semester.

The room draw cards will be delivered to student mailboxes on January 29 and there will be apartment open houses from 8-10 pm on February 5th and 6th, to help students decide where they would like to live.

Currently, there are about 125 juniors and seniors, about 12 percent, living on campus, according to Lomastro. The number dropped to 100 beds to be given away for the 2007/2008 semester. It is the first time in 10 years that the room draw has been capped due to the increase in class sizes.