THE BEGINNING of October means that the housing hunt has begun for any student who wishes to live off Grounds next year. The matter is complicated further because the University Housing Division does not have its housing lottery for on-Grounds housing until second semester. The housing lottery should be moved up to first semester, and students must try to resist signing leases this early in the semester.
Because the housing lottery is not until second semester, many students are forced to decide in the fall whether they will be living on or off Grounds the next school year. Suppose that a student only will want to live in University housing if he can live in Lambeth apartments. If the student waits until second semester, and after entering the housing lottery fails to land Lambeth, he is stuck with two unappealing options. The student can either live in another University housing option or try to find off-Grounds housing, when many places already have been rented out.
The situation is even worse for first years, who barely have been at the University for a month. They often feel they must decide in a very short period of time where and with whom they want to live next year.
One solution would be moving the housing lottery up to first semester. This way, students theoretically could wait to see where they end up in the housing lottery before deciding whether or not to live off Grounds.
In a personal interview, Chief Housing Offier Mark Doherty said, "Moving the lottery earlier would be doing the same thing [forcing students to decide in the fall where they want to live the next year] that the rental companies do, which is at the heart of student concern."
Doherty points out that it does not make sense to move the housing lottery up to first semester if students think that rental companies have their lease signings too early. However, moving up the lottery would be to the students' benefit, even if it means mimicking the deplorable patterns of the rental companies.
Doherty also points out that rental companies always would be willing to move their re-signing dates back, to make them earlier than University housing, no matter what the housing office did. This is probably true, and while the housing lottery should still be moved up, students must take the initiative and resist signing leases at the beginning of the school year.
The next question is, can anybody influence when rental companies allow students to sign for the next year? In a telephone interview with Charlottesville Mayor Blake Caravati, he makes it clear that the city does not have the jurisdiction to tell rental companies when they can lease their apartments and houses.
According to Caravati, "Virginia is a state which emphasizes the protection of private property rights. The city of Charlottesville does not have the authority to tell rental companies when to have their lease signing deadlines."
The focus, therefore, must be on the students. Students should not feel pressured to look for housing at the very beginning of the year.
There are several reasons why being forced into early housing decisions is bad. First, a student may not be prepared in the beginning of the year to know where he wants to live next year. Many things can change between October and May, ranging from deciding to go abroad to joining a fraternity or sorority that has available housing.
Another issue is that some students rush into signing leases and then later in the school year realize that they have made a mistake. One typical error is that students realize that the people who they thought they wanted to live with at the beginning of the year are not the same ones who they want to live with at the end of the year. The problem with not looking for housing at the beginning of the year is that other students who are get a head start.
Student Council is the representative body for student interests, and any collective action to solve the problem must begin with them. Unfortunately, it seems that lately Council has spent more time worrying about moral issues such as Burma and the "not gay" chant rather than looking to solve practical problems such as housing.
Council has a number of programs to help students with housing, yet has thus far been unable to end the annual housing hysteria. John Bailey, chair of the Student Council housing concerns committee, believes that Council can help solve the problem. One possible solution that he offered is for Council to negotiate with the rental companies about their signing deadlines. Whether or not Council actually attempts to take a lead role in trying to help this situation remains to be seen.
Because of the nature of student housing, each student must decide for him or herself where to live and when to begin looking. The current housing problems will not end until a majority of students decide collectively that they will no longer be manipulated by the system.
(Harris Freier's column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at hfreier@cavalierdaily.com.)
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