Late April normally brings joy to the Grinnell campus with the appearance of budding trees and fresh green grass. However, one weekend during this blissful month may bring distress to some when room draw looms ahead.
Despite the usual confusion that accompanies room draw, the process seemed to go smoothly this year. In fact, room draw actually ended earlier than previous years, not because the College was running out of rooms, but instead because everyone who attended received a room.
“We feared we may not have enough doubles for rising second-years [or] enough singles for rising third-years,” Technical Assistant for Student Affairs Laura Gogg said. Contrary to Gogg’s thoughts, after room-draw occurred, singles were still available on some parts of campus.
“I think this may be due to restructuring special housing draw—we added triples as an option to the special housing draw,” Gogg said.
Gogg is referring to the special housing draw, held on Apr. 16, which assigned triples and group draws. This allowed students who did not receive the rooms they hoped for to reconsider their options before regular room draw.
“Students who ended up not getting [their room choice] did not have to split up on the spot,” said RLC for East Campus Dan Hirsch.
Unlike previous years, those who failed to find a roommate themselves—mainly rising second-years— were required to fill out a request form stating that they were in need of a roommate.
“A bunch of students didn’t find a roommate so they were asked to sign a roommate request form,” said Norris fourth Student Advisor (SA) Emily Francis ’11.
Within the next couple of weeks, the Department of Residence Life and Orientation will work with these students to find a housing arrangement.
Those students lacking a roommate account for most of the students—approximately 50—who were no-shows at room draw.
“I only remembered the time for room-draw because I woke up an hour before I was supposed to show up and checked my emails,” said Maia Larson ’11, referring to the late e-mail reminder sent out by Gogg Sunday morning.
This late reminder may explain why some students did not show up to claim their living space for next year.
“Some students—especially rising third-years—apparently didn’t show up—because of their shitty room-draw number, they thought they wouldn’t be able to get a single,” said Younker third SA Ishita Dharnidharka ’11.
These students were mistaken, as demonstrated by the number of singles in North Campus that were left open after the Class of 2011 completed the room draw process.
But singles within the Clangrala cluster were not the only rooms that were left.
“This year we still have spaces open in Loose, which may not have happened before,” Gogg said.
However, the fact that these rooms are doubles is a sign that Loose has not completely lost its popularity, as there are no singles available on South Campus.
“Singles in Loose went very fast,” said Loose Pit SA Alice Thornewill ’11. Thornewill was surprised that there were open doubles in Loose while other dorms that are traditionally known to be less popular, such as Norris, were filled within the first two hours of room draw.
“Surprisingly singles in Norris, that are converted doubles, went fairly quickly,” Dharnidharka said.
The Norris singles disappearing prior to others located in other locations on campus may signify that many more were satisfied with their final room choices.
“Most everyone that showed up got what they wanted,” Hirsch said. “There was a variety of rooms left at the end.”
Gogg believes that the end result will make assigning housing for the Class of 2014 slightly easier.
“For the incoming class I don’t have the same fear of housing shortage I’ve had for the last two years,” Gogg said. “It will still be tight, but we will accommodate everyone.”