The results of the Housing Draw have been released, and across campus students are reacting to their housing assignments for the coming academic year. In anticipation of this year’s Draw, Residential Education (ResEd) made several key changes to the housing selection process. While these changes have been beneficial to housing applicants in some areas, they have also made the process more difficult in other ways.

ResEd has done much to make the Draw process clearer and more specific–students now apply for specific room types in addition to choosing housing preferences. This has allowed students to more clearly indicate what type of living space they desire. Though in-house draws will still continue in the weeks ahead, the former tradition of drawing and selecting room types at in-house draw has been rendered obsolete by the new system. For draw group members, this change has forced many to rethink their living arrangements and preferences in order to live with their friends. Specifically, draw groups where some members prefer one type of room and other members prefer another type are simply not accommodated under this system.

For instance, if a group of four students–three girls and a boy–wanted to draw together as two girls rooming together while the other girl and the boy live in singles, this arrangement is no longer feasible when each group member must select the same type of room preference. In this way, the new system affords smaller groups and individuals more specifications and choices for housing, but at the same time larger draw groups are having their rooming options significantly limited.

The disadvantages of the current Draw system are not limited to draw groups. Changes to Housing policies and the Draw over the last few years have had a significant impact on the campus housing dynamic, the most significant being the soft segregation of campus life according to class year. The centralization of the freshman student body into Wilbur and Stern has removed a lot of four-class influence on the freshman experience. At the same time, Row houses and co-ops have tended to become housed exclusively with Tier One residents, who usually tend to be upperclassmen. With most students saving their higher tiers for later years, the chances of sophomores, and even juniors, making it into Row houses or co-ops is becoming increasingly slim. This type of de facto class separation undermines a part of the Stanford residential experience that many students value, as having a mixed-year population in residences helps keep campus life vibrant and interconnected.

While the current Draw process may afford clearer choices in some areas, it also creates problems that ResEd should consider as they observe the effects of this year’s Draw and how the student population is dispersed across campus. Choice does not always equal a better outcome, and the precision of the current Draw system may lead to a more uniform, less diverse living environment on campus as time goes on.