The University released its decisions on Lawn rooms for the 2022-23 school year Friday. Forty-seven students have been offered Lawn rooms, while the seven remaining rooms on the Lawn are reserved for specific awards and organizations.
Demographic data provided by Interim Dean of Students Julie Caruccio showed a decrease in the number of students of color offered Lawn rooms last year — but still a vast increase from the number of students of color who received an offer in 2020. This year, just under 47 percent of the available Lawn rooms were offered to students of color, compared to 60 percent last year and 32 percent the year prior.
Women vastly outnumbered the men in terms of Lawn room offers. Of the 47 offers made, 32 were to women and 15 were to men — last year, 25 offers were made to women, while 22 were to men.
Lawn room decisions are made by the Lawn Selection Committee, a 60-person group made up of fourth-year students and chaired by the senior resident of the Lawn. The Committee is made up of 30 students representing each school on Grounds and various student groups — including but not limited to the president of Student Council, the chair of the Honor Committee, the chair of the University Judiciary Committee, representatives from the Asian Student Union, the Black Student Alliance, and the National Pan-Hellenic Council. The remaining 30 students are selected randomly.
Nine offers this year went to African American or African American+ students, making up 20 percent of total offers. This is one less offer than last year.
Twelve — or 26 percent of total offers — went to Asian or APA+ students, while last year only 10 Asian American students were offered Lawn rooms.
Three offers went to Latinx or Latinx+ students — two less than last year — making up just six percent of offers.
31 offers — or 69 percent — went to students in the College, a slight decrease from last year. The McIntire School of Commerce and Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy were the next most popular schools, with six and four offers each, respectively. Engineering had two students make the cut and Education had one, while no Nursing or Architecture school students were offered Lawn rooms.
The top major among students offered a Lawn room was Commerce, with eight total students. The next most popular major was Global Studies with seven offers, followed by Public Policy, Computer Science and Politics Honors with four, three and three offers each.
The mean grade point average of students offered a Lawn room was 3.810 — higher than last year’s average GPA by nearly a full tenth.