UNIVERSITY Housing Division's new policy allowing first years to apply for on-Grounds housing during the period traditionally reserved for upper-class students is a misguided attempt to find a "quick fix" to a larger housing problem that plagues all University students.
It's true that with the old policy, first years definitely got the housing shaft. I should know -- three years ago, I was one, anxiously waiting in housing limbo with seven of my suitemates to see if we would make the Lambeth cut. As unpleasant as that experience was, I can't imagine that it would have been any less so if my friends and I had been allowed to apply for housing at the same time as the upper-class students. It seemed only natural that, as the newest members of the University community, we should have last pick on available housing. Most upperclassmen who choose to change their on-Grounds living situation after a year or two do so, obviously, because their experience in a particular residence area has not been fulfilling enough to merit them staying, and they want to find something that suits them better. There's nothing wrong in allowing them a little edge on the competition.
Odds are that, in many situations where upperclassmen want to change their housing situation, they want to do so because they did not receive their first choice in housing when they originally entered the lottery. If they have put up with a less than ideal living situation, upperclassmen wishing to change should have the option to do so before first years, who have yet to experience any kind of upper-class living.
The Housing Division has implemented its new policy as part of a larger strategy to recruit more second-year students to live on Grounds, but this change doesn't really address the heart of the housing problem at the University. Housing officials blame local realty companies for propagating the myth that there is a lack of convenient housing opportunities on Grounds and pressuring students to sign leases as early as October, when the truth is that there is a shortage of convenient housing on Grounds. There is a shortage of convenient housing in Charlottesville in general. I live off Grounds now, but when I was applying for on-Grounds housing after first year, I did so knowing that as I waited for the results of the lottery -- while convenient housing opportunities off Grounds were quickly getting snatched away -- there was a huge possibility that I was not going to get my first choice residence area, if I got one at all. And I know plenty of people who were left in that situation -- homeless as late as March.
The uncertainty involved with waiting for housing is a huge turn-off for many people. Perhaps it is unfair that area management and realty companies have cornered the housing market and successfully pushed for early lease signing, but it is a fact of life at the University. Rather than implement a policy that doesn't really provide a significant advantage to anyone applying for on-Grounds housing, University Housing should become competitive with the Charlottesville market. By the time Jan. 16 rolls around, most convenient off-Grounds accommodations are claimed. If on-Grounds housing applications were due at the same time as the lease-signing frenzy begins, students would be less afraid to take the on-Grounds housing gamble.
Housing officials have admitted that putting first-year students on "an equal playing field" in terms of applying for on-Grounds housing diminishes the chances for upper-class students to get their first housing choice if they choose to change locations. Giving first years equal application opportunities might give the impression to rising second years that the on-Grounds housing odds are tilted somewhat in their favor, but it does very little to mask the larger problem of living on Grounds -- the potential cruelty of the housing lottery. The answer is not to take away much loved privileges from upperclassmen, but to make better efforts at becoming competitive with the larger Charlottesville housing market. If rising second years have a stronger guarantee that convenient housing opportunities will still be available off-Grounds in the event that first-choice on-Grounds housing options are not available, they will likely be more willing to apply for on-Grounds accommodation, and not give in so quickly to the off-Grounds housing beast.
(Dana Giacofci is a fourth year in the College of Arts and Sciences.)
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