Residents of McDowell and Leonard Hall next semester will receive priority housing options when registering for on-campus housing for the fall semester.
The University was rash to preemptively promise early housing registration to these residents.
While the noise from construction of North Hall is indeed an inconvenience to residents, McKinley construction also causes noise hindrances to residents of Letts, Anderson and Centennial. Seeing as Northside residents have not been complaining about noise, the decision to create a policy to guarantee early housing registration seems unnecessary. The preference for housing should not favor one side of campus over another, especially when based on faulty logic.
If AU is going to create a system of preference for anyone, it would need to aid all students facing inconveniences. If preference is given to Northside students dealing with noise, students forced to live in the Letts Sky Lounge at the beginning of this year deserve to receive preference as well. After a while, it’s just not feasible to offer that privilege to anyone.
The entire AU community will benefit from the current construction in the long term. This being said, privileges shouldn’t be given to specific groups on campus for dealing with pieces of the construction in the first place.
These issues are symptoms of a larger problem: the pure lottery system in place should be reconsidered with additional new housing options being added in upcoming years.
Various criteria such as separate housing lotteries based on credits completed at AU, grade point average, semesters lived on campus and anticipated graduation date should all be considered. The Eagle does not feel that total credits completed would be an effective method to housing selection. Students coming to AU with sizable amounts of AP/IB credit are already given proper advantage with class selection.
With more on-campus housing becoming available, upperclassmen should not be forced off campus simply due to a bad lottery number. As we expand housing on campus, demand will also increase, and AU will need to be prepared for that influx of students looking for a home.
While there is no single solution to the housing selection process, AU should take into consideration alternative approaches moving forward. ? E
edpage@theeagleonline.com
