by Megan J. Mahoney
It’s that time of year again and the two most important questions on many students minds are who and where? Oh yeah, it’s housing lottery time.
A double in Gonzaga or Loyola? A five- or seven-man townhouse? A four-person apartment? Please don’t say the dreaded Kostka-Claver suites!
“We only had three people in our group because we left it to the last minute,” said Britt Costa ’06. “We were told if we didn’t find another we would all be placed in singles in Dolan for our senior year but we did and now we are in the apartments.”
However, those conflicts pale in comparison to the Real World-esque battles over deciding of roommates and setting groups before lottery night.
Lets be honest, boys have nothing on girls when it comes to cat-fighting and drama.
Lindsay Anderson ’05 had battles royale with a group of girls before one lottery.
“We had a group of seven girls but we weren’t sure we were going to make the seven-man houses so we had to tell two girls that they might not be able to live with us depending on how the lottery went,” she said. “Then, four of us went abroad and we had to get more roommates and that was a huge issue too.”
But not everyone is fearful of the housing lottery process.
Adam Cataldo ’05 was easy to please after his freshman year because he could only go up in the housing pecking order.
“I was in Dolan freshman year so anything but there was great with me, just to get out of there,” he said. “My pick was anything but Dolan.”
“My roommate Mike was really easy to get along with too, so that made it even easier,” he added. “We have lived together all four years.”
OK, so let’s say you have the roommate and where to live questions settled. You should be made in the shade, right? Wrong.
Anyone going to study abroad in the fall forfeits their number and housing basically places you at random. You could be in a house full of people you don’t know or a not-so-sweet suite with not-so-sweet suitemates.
Or, if your housemates go abroad in the spring, and you’re alone, you may be placed with new roommates or even moved into another house according to housing needs.
The moral of the story: housing creates drama, it always has and it always will.
“Two of my roommates left last year to go abroad and we only had four to begin with in a five-man townhouse,” said Byron Kim ’05. “They placed two other guys with us without even asking but it is part of the housing agreement you sign.”
“It ended up working out, not as well as the original because of the comfort level of being with friends,” he said. “But we lived together fine.”
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