Some students expressed frustration with what they said was a lack of transparency and communication in the application process to Special Room Selection apartments and Renfrow Hall apartments, including a technical glitch that they said prevented submission of applications.
“The process has been incredibly frustrating and honestly, ResLife has not been very helpful at all,” said Anna Curtin `28, who applied to live in Renfrow with a group of two other rising third years and a rising fourth year and was rejected.
Applications for Grinnell College apartment-style housing in the 2026-27 school year were highly competitive, with 250 second, third and fourth years applying for just 109 beds in Renfrow Hall, said Paul Frost-Lau, associate director of housing operations.
“I remember a couple years ago when they had the initial meetings for opening Renfrow, they were like, ‘Okay, fill out these applications,’” Curtin said. “They sort of gave us the sense that if you’re involved in the community, it would be something open for you.”
Curtin said she was surprised to be rejected as a rising third year with a history of community and volunteer work, including with children’s soccer clinics and reading tutoring.
Renfrow Hall housing applications are evaluated by a committee of professors and staff based entirely on three essay questions about community engagement, said Frost-Lau.
Unlike General Room Selection, seniority plays no role in the process, he said.
“All identifiable information was removed so that the campus partners that I work with to grade those didn’t have any bias influence the grading,” he said. “I do not read the applications, because I don’t want my positionality to provide influence to the people who are grading or anything like that.”
Jake Bell `27, a Renfrow resident, said his group’s 2026-27 Renfrow application wasn’t rejected because it was never received in the first place.
“We reached out and we were like, ‘Hey, we haven’t heard anything. Why is that?’ and they’re like, ‘Well, we don’t have your application. We don’t have anything on record for you guys,’” he said. “Me and my fiancée are currently members of Renfrow, and so we furnished it, she has accommodations and such, so we can’t really go into on-campus housing.”
The submission issue has left him and his fiancée scrambling to find adequate housing for next year, he said.
“Since they did the off campus housing lottery months ago, and the special room draw, off-campus project housing and Renfrow all at the same time, we don’t have an apartment-style housing option on campus anymore,” he said.
In an email to The S&B, Frost-Lau wrote there were no identified technical issues with Renfrow housing applications.
He wrote all successful submissions came with a confirmation email.
However, a January email sent to all students said a technical glitch had affected at least some campus housing applications.
“We identified an error in the coding work that was completed of the Individualized Housing Experience Applications. If you completed one of those applications, please go back into StarRez and resubmit those applications,” wrote Frost-Lau in an email sent to all students on Jan. 21.
Molly Ryan `27 said she missed the email, did not resubmit her Cowles apartment application, which did not come with a confirmation email, and was later told her initial application was never received.
“There’s so many moving parts that I don’t want to put any blame on anyone, but I do feel like it would be nice if some grace was given to students, especially when there are multiple parts in the application process,” said Ryan. “When I sent the application, it said it was submitted. It didn’t have an issue or error message in the portal.”
Ryan said she ended up finding an apartment elsewhere on campus but without a kitchen.
This will force her onto a less affordable meal plan, she said.
“It’s an impossible job to have a smooth housing process,” she said. “But I think more clarity in that could have been helpful.”
