Housing draw leaves 79 undergraduates unassigned

July 7, 2011, 3:04 a.m.

79 undergraduates who entered the Draw still do not have housing for fall quarter ahead of the waiting-list assignments that will come out July 23.

According to statistics on the Stanford Housing Department website, there have historically been students unassigned every year. The number is down from 89 undergraduates in 2009 and 122 in 2010.

Nevertheless, some unassigned undergraduates are still finding the process frustrating.

Housing draw leaves 79 undergraduates unassigned
79 undergraduates are still without housing for fall quarter. (SERENITY NGUYEN/The Stanford Daily)

According to Aaron Peterson ’13, being left without a housing assignment hinders some aspects of his summer before junior year.

“I think it [the waiting-list process] absolutely disadvantages us because we’re starting off without the security of knowing where we’re living, and we just have to go through a whole, arduous process that we weren’t expecting or told about,” Peterson said.

He added that he would rather be worrying about classes and internships than his housing situation.

According to Executive Director of Student Housing Rodger Whitney, the consistent group of unassigned students is a product of the balancing act between meeting the four years of guaranteed housing for all undergraduates as well as accommodating the “significant number of cancellations over the summer.”

“Student Housing is charged with allocating enough housing to undergraduate students to meet this guarantee while still keeping our housing fully occupied,” he wrote in an email to The Daily. “Doing so makes the best use of our facilities and allows Stanford to accept the maximum number of freshmen and transfer students.”

“Vacancies come from students who decide to take a leave of absence, are suspended or get accepted late to overseas-studies programs,” he added. “If we assigned all students during the Draw, we would open autumn quarter with a significant number of vacancies, and fewer students would be able to attend the University.”

Will Monroe ’13, who is also unassigned, is optimistic that the situation will work itself out, despite complaints about the wait list.

“The main thing that was disappointing was the news that we couldn’t keep our Draw group together,” Monroe said. “Even if we get our bottom choice, it’d still be cool as long as we [the Draw group] can stay together. But since we can’t stay together, we’re a bit worried about what our housing situation is going to be like next year.”

The housing-assignment process involves three different “rounds”: the Draw, the waiting list and continuous assignments. If unassigned after the first draw, students go on the waiting list to wait for housing. If they are still unassigned after the second round, students go into continuous assignments.

Shortly before the July 3 waiting-list-ranking deadline, Housing announced that it had added Oak Creek Apartments, which abuts Stanford campus, to the list of residences students may rank. However, Housing is also “currently considering some additional projects to build new undergraduate housing,” Whitney said.

“There will probably be no additional housing ready for occupancy for at least two years,” he wrote. “We will meet our obligation to the guarantee and have all undergraduate students with guaranteed years remaining assigned by the end of the first week of autumn quarter, if not before.”

Both Monroe and Peterson mentioned that more clarity on the Housing Department website could help students on the waiting list figure out the application process. According to Monroe, the Housing Department website could be more helpful if the information were presented more explicitly.

“It’s a nightmare trying to find the dates, the deadlines,” Monroe said. “They’re hidden within, like, three layers of pages that I have to see when I’ve got to submit these forms and stuff.”

Housing, however, disputes those claims about the website.

“We are in the process of revising our site at this time, but the feedback we generally receive is different from what you have heard,” Whitney said. “What we have found is that we have extensive information on the website, but that students do not always successfully navigate deep enough into the offerings, causing them to sometimes miss important details.”

Ellora Israni contributed to this report.

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