2008 Woodie Awards
Demands strain on-campus housing
Catherine Bratic
Issue date: 4/11/08 Section: News
Will Rice College was asked to take in 84 freshmen next year, leaving them with more students guaranteed housing than they have beds.
"The combined increase of last year and this year is what makes this year especially difficult at Will Rice," junior Eastman Landry, who is in charge of room draw, said.
He said since Will Rice kicks off juniors and more freshmen than usual will declare sophomore status next year instead of planning to graduate early and declaring themselves juniors. Since juniors are typically kicked off, this reduces room draw flexibility because there will now be more sophomores than usual who are guaranteed housing.
"This means that juniors have pretty much no chance of getting on campus," Landry said.
He said juniors had negative six spots available at one point.
"Additionally, we need six other people to go off-campus - either willingly or possibly forced at a later date," Landry said. "At this point we are hoping that the numbers work out, since that is really all we can do."
Landry said that Will Rice had worked out a potential plan in which the six people would move into already filled rooms if all incoming students decided to live on campus. This would mean that an additional bed would have to be added to as many as six rooms.
"This is not what we want to do, but if it comes to that, this is what we think is the best thing that we can do," Landry said.
Some students facing room jack will go to great lengths to secure a spot on campus. At Jones College, four groups of students attempted to form triples by putting three students in a two-bed room.
Jones freshman Rick Manning originally planned to triple up, until a last-minute change in plans allowed him to live on with only one roommate.
"I was one of the two lucky freshmen whose names were drawn for bumping off-campus," Manning said. "So, in order to keep me on campus, some friends of mine offered to form a triple with me. I don't know what I would have done if they hadn't offered."
"The combined increase of last year and this year is what makes this year especially difficult at Will Rice," junior Eastman Landry, who is in charge of room draw, said.
He said since Will Rice kicks off juniors and more freshmen than usual will declare sophomore status next year instead of planning to graduate early and declaring themselves juniors. Since juniors are typically kicked off, this reduces room draw flexibility because there will now be more sophomores than usual who are guaranteed housing.
"This means that juniors have pretty much no chance of getting on campus," Landry said.
He said juniors had negative six spots available at one point.
"Additionally, we need six other people to go off-campus - either willingly or possibly forced at a later date," Landry said. "At this point we are hoping that the numbers work out, since that is really all we can do."
Landry said that Will Rice had worked out a potential plan in which the six people would move into already filled rooms if all incoming students decided to live on campus. This would mean that an additional bed would have to be added to as many as six rooms.
"This is not what we want to do, but if it comes to that, this is what we think is the best thing that we can do," Landry said.
Some students facing room jack will go to great lengths to secure a spot on campus. At Jones College, four groups of students attempted to form triples by putting three students in a two-bed room.
Jones freshman Rick Manning originally planned to triple up, until a last-minute change in plans allowed him to live on with only one roommate.
"I was one of the two lucky freshmen whose names were drawn for bumping off-campus," Manning said. "So, in order to keep me on campus, some friends of mine offered to form a triple with me. I don't know what I would have done if they hadn't offered."
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Dean Davis
Dean Davis
posted 4/11/08 @ 10:50 PM CST
Does Chris Munoz's quote in this article strike anyone else as blatantly and offensively disregarding the problem the article is discussing?
Barry
posted 6/17/08 @ 12:25 AM CST
I am an OOS parent of a prospective 2009 student who is considering Rice. If this housing situation (and attitude by Rice officials) hasn't improved by next April it WILL be the factor that will probably cause us to enroll elsewhere. (Continued…)
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