Author:
contribute to the overall well-being of the school and a plan of action for bettering the community.
“The application process was pretty tough, pretty rigorous and pretty complex,” Harry Keyte (first-year) said. The application required several weeks of planning, multiple days to complete and participation from all 16 residents to submit their proposal.
Keyte, a member of the “Student Athlete” themed residence, is optimistic about the arrangement and predicts that his quad-mates will help bring the campus together in celebrating intercollegiate sporting events. He anticipates that the arrangement will encourage athletes to mingle with the rest of the college more readily.
“We’re going to make it so that sports teams are more integrated,” Keyte said, adding that he hopes to also “get everyone more involved in sports and come out to games.”
“It’s great to have a backbone. At the end of the day, you come home to all your best friends and brothers,” Keyte said.
One additional benefit of living in themed housing is the ability to pick one’s room before room draw.
Room Draw for the 2011-2012 school year began this Monday, when rising seniors were able to pick their rooms for next year. Rising juniors picked their rooms on Tuesday, and rising sophomores will pick their rooms this evening.
A few weeks prior to room draw, each student is assigned a randomly generated number indicating their place in line to select a room. Students are given the opportunity to select their preferred residence hall as well as their preferred room type: single, double, triple or “tringle” room. The official room draw process takes place between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. each evening.
Occidental’s Residential Education Housing Services strives to modify the room draw system around the feedback and preferences of students.
“Our office aims at providing students with an equitable experience in the room selection process,” Assistant Director of Housing Services Michelle Saldaña said. “Understanding this, our office held weekly meetings for students to express their concerns and provide feedback on previous room selection experiences.”
One decision made in this year’s meeting was to maintain the status quo established last year.
“It was decided that one-third of spaces in the residence halls will be allocated to each class for room selection,” Saldaña said, a continuation of a past policy.
Still, students were unhappy with the result of room draw this year.
“Though at least room draw was run much more smoothly than last year — for the small amount of juniors who opted in — the result felt as unfair as always for me. Another low number and another quota means I barely escaped Stearns for what would have been the third straight year,” Economics major Chris Best (junior) said.
Room draw continues through tonight.
This article has been archived, for more requests please contact us via the support system.
