Large class sizes cramp housing

On Feb. 17, housing sign-up began, and this year, the Department of Housing has made several changes in the registration and preference process as well as in housing availability. Hemphill Apartments are now designated for undergraduates due to space pressure from the large size of the incoming freshman class. In addition, the entire housing preference selection is now handled online.

Last year, all students who applied for housing during sign up received a space. The large current freshman class may limit how many returning upperclassmen receive housing for Fall 2005. First- and second-year students are still guaranteed housing.

" We only have 6,000 beds, so the large freshman class will have an effect on the lottery, " said Dan Morrison, associate director of Housing for Residence Life.

If the number of returning student applications submitted by March 1 is greater than available space, a lottery system will be used to pick eligible students.

" We ' re predicting 2,400 new freshmen for this Fall and a little over 2,100 of those will most likely live on campus. We guarantee housing to first and second years, so we ' re protecting 2,150 beds for freshmen. Historically, about 63 percent of second years will stay on campus. So depending on housing registration, we ' ll protect around 2,000 beds for sophomores, " Morrison said.

" We also have to save 130 beds for student staff. The Athletic Association gets 282 beds and 88 are assigned [in] other ways. That means 4,150 beds are saved and only about 1,450 beds are available for the lottery, " Morrison said.

In an effort to accommodate the expected large demand for housing, Hemphill Apartments, currently designated for graduate students, has been changed to undergraduate housing.

" We have 300 more undergraduate spaces than in the past, because Hemphill Apartments are identified as undergraduate, " Morrison said.

" For the past eight years since the Olympics, Hemphill and the Graduate Living Center have been graduate spaces. But there has been a decline in graduate students staying on campus and we can ' t save beds for students who may materialize in June when there are students saying they want housing now, " Morrison said.

" It ' s not a permanent change and may shift back. We ' ll have to see, but it should help the squeeze a bit, " Morrison said.

Rising sophomores will also be allowed to request apartments for the first time.

" There have always been some sophomores who get apartments but this is the first time we ' ve factored them in, " Morrison said.

" This is the largest freshman class we ' ve had so there will be lots of sophomores in apartments. We ' re earmarking Sixth Street East for rising sophomores. It is the least requested so we ' ll try to get as many sophomores together as possible, " Morrison said.

Housing has made several changes in addition to changing the designation of Hemphill Apartments and allowing sophomores to request apartments. One of these changes expanded preference selection online. " We now have all of the process online. There are so many ways people look at room selections and we think we ' ve got a system that can handle all the permutations people may request, " Morrison said.

The change to an almost completely online process was possible because of student confidence in the system and a program that can handle more preferences than in the past.

" It has taken time to build trust in the system. We ' ve had the capacity for the past couple of years, but students have to trust that if they ' re lottery number 700 then they will get their preference before number 701 does, " Morrison said. " The Student Planning Committee has told us that their peers know that it works. "

" All that used to be online was where someone wanted to live and who they wanted to live with. Now, you can be more specific about where you want to live. But still, the more general the preference, the more likely that you ' ll get it, " Morrison said. " There are 17 preferences that residents can put in. The vast majority says which type of housing they want first. "

The online changes mean only a few students will be required to appear in person for any part of the housing process. " The only part that is not online is if you choose same-different, " Morrison said. " It is such a small process to pick a new room in the same building that it works better that way. " In addition to the expanded preferences online, housing is allowing more students to pull in residents to apartment and moving students around so that groups can live together. " We are trying to find all opportunities to get people where and with who they want to be, " Morrison said. " A big change is asking people if they would move around a building so groups can live together. "

Housing is building this new optional program off a required consolidation that occurred in Woodruff last year. " We moved students who did not pull someone in their room or have a roommate preference to the first floor of Woodruff. They were not given an option, but with apartments each being unique we ' re going to ask so that groups can live together, " Morrison said.

Unlike the Woodruff experiment, students will not be forced to move this year. " We know that if friends live together there are less roommate issues. Most people don ' t have a problem with moving around since they ' re not in the room already anyway. Still, seniority is a big thing at Tech so we ' re going to ask and let people stay if they want to stay, " Morrison said.

Housing sign-up and prepayment continue until March 1. If there are more applicants than available beds, a random lottery will determine which students are assigned a room selection number. Room selection numbers are determine by class status and then by number of credits earned at Georgia Tech. Students will use the new online system for selecting their preferences starting March 10.