Atwater suites remain prime real estate

Author: Catherine Ahearn

April 10 marked the final day of rooming assignments for students living on campus next year. Although there were not many changes in the room draw system, the upcoming closure of Atwater dining hall in January 2009 generated rumors about changes in housing desirability around campus.

However, Residential Systems Coordinator Karin Hall-Kolts did not feel as though students changed their preferences in the 2009-2010 room draw.

"Although I did hear students talk about the change in dining hall locations having an effect on housing desirability, I did not see any change in the preferences students submitted," Hall-Kolts wrote in an e-mail. "The top choices were still the small senior houses and then the LaForce and Atwater suites."

Dining hall location definitely played a role in Faisal Saeed's '10 decision of where to live next year.

"I definitely think the dining situation affected my choice," said Saeed. "An Atwater suite probably would have been my first choice but instead we went for a LaForce suite and got that instead."

New to this year's super-block list was Fletcher House, now the third super-block available to students. Super-block housing options allow students with a common interest to live together. With the recent growth of the student body, all housing options must be fully utilized.

"The high numbers have meant we have had to carefully scrutinize some of the past practices of allowing rooms to be underutilized," wrote Hall-Kolts in an e-mail.

Along with greater demand comes less flexibility.

"When each bed is needed," Hall-Kolts pointed out, "and more importantly is designated for a particular use, it means there is less flexibility when trying to accommodate a room change request or need."

Preparations for each year's room draw process start in January. Students who will not be participating in room draw, such as those living in social or academic interest houses or those going abroad, are factored out and then the number and selection of beds is reviewed and organized. It is important that the needs of each commons to house their first-years and sophomores are met and balanced with the housing options available to juniors and seniors. However, many students have expressed concerns over the way the system works.

"I think all the seniors should go first, apart from the juniors, so that juniors know what they can pick from," said Alyssa Ha '11.

"It's annoying when you apply for housing because you have to apply for rooms you know you're not going to get," said Courtney Guillory '11. "I think people should apply for rooms according to their numbers, like a tier system. I found it really pointless to have seniors and juniors draw together."

Saeed found issue with another aspect of the room draw system.

"I don't really know how else you can do it, but its annoying that it's all left to chance and you can go four years and get bad housing every year," said Saeed.

Despite the inherent flaws in the system, many precautions are taken to ensure that the live draw itself runs as smoothly as possible by testing the system beforehand. This year a series of practice run sessions were used to allow students to familiarize themselves with the system before the lives sessions began. Also new to the process was "the use of a drop down list of names to eliminate the need for friends to have to track down student IDs for those in their group."

Having a smooth housing selection process is of great importance, explained Hall-Kolts, but not the primary goal of the residential systems staff.

"It is my job to maintain a campus wide perspective and to balance the goals of the College with the needs of the students," Hall-Kolts wrote in an e-mail. "The biggest challenge I face is helping students keep it all in perspective; in the grander scheme of things, housing is relatively insignificant."

However, many students on campus feel differently about their housing situation.

"I think housing is fairly important because I spend a lot of time in my room studying and with friends," said Guillory.

"If I had bad housing it would really affect my time at Middlebury - it's important," said Ha. "It's also really important socially - housing predetermines, to some extent, how much you're going to see certain people."

Ultimately, there will always be a certain level of uncertainty and disappointment in the housing system.

"Only one group/person can end up with any one space," Kolts said, "which means there are always going to be some students who do not get awarded the space they might have wanted the most."