By Hayley Van Allen
The housing process at Scripps is always hectic and confusing for the students involved. This year, however, was particularly stressful and bewildering for those who planned to live on campus this fall.
Medical accommodations were given housing first, as usual, although the procedure this year was a bit different from past years. According to one student who was approved for accomodations, there was no draw for housing. Instead, students told ResLife their top 3 choices for the hall they were housed in, and were then assigned to a room a few days later.
First-year students living at the CGU apartments this year were given first choice of housing after accommodations. One of the “CGU-ers” described their housing process: “All of us who live at CGU were given a number (I lucked out, mine was 2) and drew in that order. We were allowed to pull-in our friends, since most of us did not live with friends this year and lived among non-Scripps students, including some predatory ones.”
This particular student wanted to clear up some misconceptions about the CGU housing draw. “Not everyone pulled-in, as some CGU-ers got suites together and some of us got singles, and not all of us are living in New Hall next year. However, I realize that most people did not get what they wanted and that it was really difficult for rising seniors especially to get rooms they wanted and arguably earned over the last 3 years.”
Many, though not all, CGU-ers took suites in New Hall and GJW, leaving less suites for the rising upperclassmen. This caused a lot of panic among rising juniors and seniors who had hoped and waited for suites as upperclassmen.
In addition to the change in order of those picking housing, there was a good amount of confusion surrounding the meaning of the times given to students. Instead of assigning one class year to each day of the housing draw, there was a rolling system so that if one grade finished housing early in the day, the next grade picked up where they ended and continued into the following day
One rising junior was given a time early Thursday morning, but was still drawing after the majority of her class and only a few hours before the rising sophomore class’s times began. “I ended up getting pulled into a suite that drew on Wednesday. I could have gotten a single with my original time, but the entire situation just made me stressed out of my mind,” she said.
Rising juniors weren’t the only ones to experience a stressful housing experience. With the housing shortage, rising sophomores with late times had to watch as doubles dwindled until there were only a few rooms left at the end of the Thursday draw. This left those with times on Friday morning in a scramble to find a third or fourth roommate to fill the remaining quads and triples.
Keila Fisher (SCR ‘21) had a particularly distressing housing process. After multiple complications and miscommunication on behalf of Reslife, Fisher and her roommate were told they could register for housing at 8 p.m. on Thursday, after the portal had been restarted. “We were lucky enough to get one of the last 10 viable rooms but the third slot was filled by a random person, the identity of whom is still not known by my roommate and I,” she explained.
When asked about how she felt about her experience, Fisher replied, “I’m not upset with living in a triple, I just wish that we were aware that triples were options so we could plan for it. It felt like [ResLife was] unprepared for the problems that arose and were pressed to come up with solutions on the fly.”
Others shared a similar sentiment that the housing draw went poorly this year. One rising junior said, “I just think Scripps and ResLife need to communicate better on what they expect and what they need for their students in terms of housing and space.”
Looking towards the housing process next year, some students have suggested that Scripps either continue to decrease admission rates, or just add more housing. Keila Fisher suggested that Reslife release an updated list of available room at the end of each day so that underclassmen have more of an idea of what’s going on. The CGU-er we spoke to was also disappointed in how other students had reacted to everything. “I want all the students to support each other which has not been the case in my experience. If Scripps students were less catty to one another and treated each other with respect, we could organize to find a solution.”
Image Credit to Scripps College
