'Tis The Season To Select A Room
By Leslie Ofori
This week, Loyola University Maryland’s rising seniors began the annual event in which they choose their on-campus rooms for next year. The housing system works in two ways: students can either apply for special interest housing or they can enter the housing lottery.
Special interest housing is themed housing that is set up for students with varying interests. There are four interest houses; which are Mission, Empowerment, Ad Infinitum, and Wellness. The Mission and Empowerment house are new additions to housing next year and are complements of each other; however Mission is more faith-based. Junior Lauren Janniello explained,“Mission House is the brain child of The Reverend Timothy Brown,S.J, and seeks to help students strengthen their faith by combining it with service.” Empowerment House is a social justice themed community that encourages students to incorporate service and justice into their everyday lives. Ad Infinitum is a sophomore living and learning communitythat is designed to help sophomores navigate through their second year at Loyola. Wellness House is designed for students who choose to live in a substance-free environment. To live in these specialized settings, students have to fill out an application; all but Wellness house require interviews. Students who choose to live in special interest housing receive their rooms before those students who participate in the lottery, but those taking part in special interest housing do not select their own apartment or suite.
The housing lottery is the most popular choice among students for choosing housing. In the lottery process, a computer-generated software program randomly assigns students times and numbers. Students have to register with a roommate group, or they get placed with a random group. Students with the best time within their roommate group pick the housing for their group. Carrie McLaughlin, the Director of Student Life states,“The lottery process is completely random. We have no control over the program.” Housing is done by seniority, and students can choose to live in a suite or an apartment.
To have been eligible for housing, students had to pay a housing and tuition deposit of $600 by Feb.26, 2010. Students who failed to do so were placed on a waiting list. Some rising juniors were recently worried about housing for the 2010-2011 school year when they received an e-mail over Christmas break stating that they were not guaranteed housing for the year due to high demand. Junior Lindsay Van Asdalan said the e-mail really upset her because she was told that she was “guaranteed housing for four years,” when she applied. To their relief,juniors who paid their deposits on time received another e-mail guaranteeing them housing. “All juniors who paid their deposits on time are guaranteed housing,”Carrie McLaughlin confirmed. The e-mail however, did not promise that they would be able to room with their selected group of friends.
This year, housing selection runs from the week of March 22 through April 7.
