Housing selection this year started off with confusion over who goes when and why.
A number of students living in Franklin House and Presidential City believed they would receive first priority because they had been placed in one of the two residences that are considered to be inferior to on campus housing. That conclusion was drawn from a letter that housing mailed to all students last semester.
The letter, dated from April 6, 2000, was being circulated around Franklin House and Presidential City by a number of students this semester. Some people misinterpreted the letter and believed that it affected every student living in Franklin House and Presidential City and that they would receive first priority in this year’s housing selection process.
The letter actually stated that “students who have been assigned to main campus and who now elect reassignment to Franklin House or Presidential City will receive priority for assignments to Main Campus for Fall 2001.” The purpose of the award was to reward students who relinquished their assignment on Main Campus for their fellow students.
But nobody who was living in Franklin House or Presidential City had voluntarily elected to live there, said a housing official, so nobody qualified for priority housing selection this year.
Regina Wilmes, housing director, said that Housing didn’t mislead anyone. Housing sent out a second letter this semester clearing up the situation and once again explaining why first priority was not being given to any students living there.
Many of the students living in Franklin House last year were transfer students and were not eligible for the priority in the first place. Nathan Yerkis, a junior sociology major, was one of those transfer students.
Looking frantically for an apartment on his own this past summer, and thinking that he was not going to get housing at all, he was relieved when University Housing contacted him late in the summer and informed him that a place in campus housing had become available.
Since he was “just happy to get anything” for housing this year he really did not hold any ill feeling towards housing.
While most of the students living in Franklin House are transfer students, there were some like Jason McNeal who are not. He along with some of the other non- transfers who were stuck in Franklin House this year were the people who believe they would be getting priority this year.
“I did think I was going to get priority since I lived in Franklin House this year. Plus, they kind of cheated us out of our housing,” said McNeal, a sophomore anthropology major.
Be the first to comment