ResLife Reconciles Former Housing Lottery Glitches

After facing glitches and delays upon switching to a new software program last year, the Office of Residential Life (ResLife) has experienced few problems with the room selection process thus far this year, said Henry Humphreys, director of ResLife.

Last year was the first year the University used StarRez, an Australia-based database system, Humphreys said. For the first time, the process was completely online, whereas in previous years, students had needed to come into the office to select their rooms.
Instead of using this program "out of the box," ResLife modified the program in certain ways. "We did a lot of modifications, which left more chance for human error in programming," Humphreys said.

When it came time for the selection of six-person apartments, students last year were unable to select their rooms despite being able to view their pick time. Additionally, the system sent out test data, which included incorrect pick times. This mistake delayed room selection by an entire day. "They sent out the first list, and a couple hours later, they told us it was a test," said Anthony Vitiello, CSOM '10. "It took them a day or so to get the right list."

For Vitiello, this delay was a benefit. "We were not on the first list at all, so we thought we had no Mod pick, but we got really lucky and were in the first time slot [on the second list]."

Room selection began on Tuesday, and so far there have been no major glitches with the system, Humphreys said. The biggest problem is that students have been un-checking a box that they must leave checked to be visible in the room selection system. By un-checking the box, the students were making it so they could not be seen by others on the room selection system. This affected about 40 students, but was easily fixed when students called the office asking for help, Humphreys said. "We worked out all the glitches [from last year] and tested the system. Like anything else, there's always going to be little imperfections, but we hope it's small enough that it won't affect students and can be resolved quickly."

Another glitch occurred when ResLife was testing its system over spring break, this year. Student e-mail was accidentally left active during testing, which caused students to receive false e-mails. "The e-mails said something like, ‘You've been added to a group,' or, ‘You've been deleted from a group,'" said Steve Prue, assistant director of ResLife. "Within two hours we realized and turned off the e-mail system during testing." ResLife then sent out an e-mail informing students to disregard the ones that came before.
It is important that ResLife resolves problems quickly, Humphreys said. "We made it clear with the software company that they have to resolve problems quickly to minimize stress level. We know students stress, and we try to minimize that as much as possible by resolving problems quickly."

Despite ResLife's attempts to minimize problems, housing issues have caused some students stress. "I think the housing lottery breeds a lot of treachery, and backstabbing, and a lot of really terrible situations for a lot of people," Vitiello said. "You have to cut or add people so quickly, going from one day to the next. I really think it's terrible."

Brendan Fitzgibbons, A&S '11, agreed with Vitiello. Though he has never experienced glitches in the housing system, he said he recognized the social problems it can create. "The biggest problem is that it's hard for some groups to break apart," he said. "If a group has six people, and they don't make the six-person lottery, they have to decide in one day how to cut two people from the group. It's like Survivor – someone has to get voted off the island."

This year, ResLife tried to minimize problems by explaining to students what type of housing they could expect. For example, freshmen should not expect to get a six-person apartment, considering that only 69 percent of juniors got one this year, Humphreys said. "We tried to tell first year students what to not even apply for. The only people who ever get six-person apartments are [rising] seniors, but we still had six groups of freshmen apply for one."

The only criterion for who is selected for each type of housing is a student's year. Rising seniors get priority, followed by juniors, then sophomores. Following those criteria, selection is random and does not rely on students' grades or any other factor. "People have asked about a weighted system, but I'm not in favor of that because there's always someone who is not favored," Humphreys said. "[The current system] is the fairest way – everyone has an equal opportunity."