Housing lottery changes affect current, future students

Lehigh is implementing changes to the housing lottery system to improve the fairness and smoothness of the housing selection process for all students.

Traditionally, on-campus housing at Lehigh consisted of either co-ed or single-gender buildings for first-year students, and Greek houses or apartment-style buildings for upperclassmen. In recent years, however, the model for on-campus living, as well as the process to select housing, has evolved to better fit the needs of individual students.

“The whole reason that change is happening now is because there’s new leadership in the Office of Residence Life,” Head Gryphon Logan Hodges, ’16, said. “It’s a very exciting time.”

With two new leaders in the Office of Residence Life — Ashley Lemmons and Courtney Stephens — there has been an influx of fresh ideas about how to improve on-campus residences for students.

Although the method for sorting students into on-campus housing will be similar to the way it was in the past, some changes have been made to the system. Just as in past years, housing selection involves two distinct processes: a slightly more randomized process for first-year students and the lottery-based system for sophomores, juniors, seniors and fifth year students, should they choose to continue to live on campus.

First-year students go through a different process from that of the other class years because they are new to the school and required to live on campus. The process for these students takes into account each student’s housing preference and attempts to fulfill as many requests as possible, while factoring in things like roommate requests and special living circumstances.

The process for sophomores, juniors, seniors and fifth years is different. Even though sophomore students are still required to live on campus, they fall into the lottery system because they have more of a choice in selecting their housing. They could live in a Greek house as part of a Greek organization, or they could enter the housing lottery and live in another on-campus residence hall.

Students sign up for the housing lottery online and receive a randomly assigned number. The order that students are allowed to select their preference for housing is determined by the number they receive.

In past years, students had to choose their roommates before registering for the lottery. This year, students are able to sign up for housing as an individual. In this case, the student may end up with a single. Alternatively, individual students can request to be assigned a roommate who also went through the lottery and be housed with another person or people in a larger living space.

“I think (the process) is fair, as fair as it could be,” said Sophia Parola, ’19, a first-time participant in the housing lottery process. “But at the same time you can’t do anything to help yourself.”

Rising sophomores have yet to receive their lottery numbers. These numbers will be chosen soon, and the housing process for sophomores takes place in March and April. Upperclassmen go through the process in February.

Next year, the process for placing first-year students into dorms will be random. In the past, early decision students have received housing preference, said Katy Kresge, an associate director of Residential Services.

The new changes to on-campus residence halls are aimed at promoting a sense of community around Lehigh, and changes are continually being made to residence life.

“A lot of it is still in the works,” Hodges said. “I think that people are going to enjoy (it).”