Housing lottery determines who’s in and who’s out

Jeffrey Pierre/Assistant News Director

Students looking for a spot to live on campus next year will either be on the good or bad side of the Office of Housing and Residential Life’s new lottery system.

The lottery, which will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 12, will randomly select the students who can live on campus next year.

The deadline to apply for on-campus living was Feb. 7 so the pool is now closed.

Once selected, each student can choose his or her dorm type and can even pull other students selected into their room. The students not selected through the lottery can be placed on a wait-list or look for off-campus living. Joe Paulick, director of housing, heavily suggests the wait-list.

“Stay on the wait-list if you really need on-campus housing,” Paulick said. “Because each year after students apply, we get about 300 cancellations from students who choose to live off-campus.”

The wait-list will be active until Aug. 1, right before the fall semester begins.

The new lottery selection process is the result of a higher demand for on-campus housing, and one more important factor as Paulick explains: freshman students.

The biggest change in the housing application process from last year is that, currently, the selection process will be geared towards making on-campus living more attractive and available to freshman and returning sophomore students.

“Freshman who live on-campus tell us that they feel more connected to the university, that they get better grades, that they’re more likely to come back next year and that they’re more likely to graduate,” said Paulick. “We’re all about students graduating.”

Although partial to freshmen and sophomore students, the lottery isn’t meant to curtail upperclassmen from living on campus, as Paulick explained. Rather, it is a way show consideration to returning sophomore students, who Paulick believes are at a disadvantage when competing with juniors and seniors.

“The lottery is the result of a compromise,” Paulick said. “We’re doing this to give everyone an equal chance.”

But certain student groups could be given a higher preference in the selection process and could even be exempt altogether.

Students with the Florida’s prepaid dormitory plan, Presidential Scholars, staff, students with disabilities, international students and student athletes will be the first students placed because of the respective roles they play on campus and prior arrangements made that guarantee them housing.

Next year, students displaced at the Biscayne Bay Campus through the recent Royal Caribbean Cruiseline partnership will also be given preference in the selection process.

But some housing students are worried about the effects the lottery could have on out-of-town students.

“Some students don’t live local and if they don’t get housing, they’ll be forced to find an apartment,” said Mariah McKenzie, psychology major. “It’s not fair not that they’re putting us in a lottery.”

Paulick urges students like McKenzie to schedule an appointment with him to try and resolve any potentially problematic scenarios for out-of-town students.

Kali Davidson, a presidential scholarship recipient, honors student and international business major, feels upperclassmen have earned some seniority.

“I don’t have to go through the lottery, but I think it’s harsh,” said Davidson. “I think upperclassmen should get first pick and I’m a freshman.”

Paulick says that FIU is a growing school still in transition. “People need to understand that we take over 50,000 students but only have enough beds for 3,200 students.”

The addition of Parkview Hall, Tower 109—FIU’s first privately built off-campus housing project expected to be built by fall 2014—and off-campus apartment websites like campus.fiu.edu, are all aimed to help alleviate the potential pressures placed on housing students.

Paulick opens his door to speak with all students and with the results of the lottery being emailed to students Feb. 12, his office will officially commence a new era in housing selection.

 -jeffrey.pierre@fiusm.com