This fall, approximately 100 juniors discovered they would not be allowed to live off campus during their senior year, despite the fact that many consider living at the beach a senior tradition. However, this spring they have one important ally fighting for their housing rights – the FUSA Senate.
The class of 2009 has had to deal with an extraordinary amount of housing issues throughout its years at Fairfield. Because of a large class size, the largest in Fairfield history, a significant number of freshmen have lived in forced triples as well as juniors housed in Kostka/Claver, in addition to being relegated to Jogues Hall – originally designated for freshmen – two years in a row.
The Senate has often focused on the housing dilemma on campus – including the renovation of the Jesuit housing into a dormitory and the failed garden apartments plan – but FUSA has been particularly active about the Off-Campus Boarder (OCB) lottery, a system many have claimed is unfair. The lottery has been a focus of many Senate discussions, and FUSA has created a Facebook group to streamline discussion about the problem.
The Senate has also notified the administration of its dissent and posed solutions to the problem, which includes releasing all members of the class of 2009 who desire, releasing those who have been separated from their original group because of the four-person cap, and financially compensating those forced to live on campus.
According to the Facebook group, the Senate, at the very least, desires public acknowledgement of what it believes to be a flawed system.
“The Senate has taken an issue with the OCB Lottery because it is mathematically unfair,” said Senate Chair Tim Rich ’08.
“[As a result] the class of 2009 was denied a fair process,” he said. “The Senate’s primary focus is finding a solution for those deprived.”
Because of the way the lottery is conducted, a group of four students (the maximum number of students allowed to enter the lottery as a group) has a 75 percent better chance of getting a high enough number to be released from campus as opposed to a person who enters as an individual.
This is because each student is individually assigned a number, and the student with the best number can be the representative for the rest of his or her group.
Therefore, a group with only one member has a smaller chance of getting a number good enough to be released. This can be an especially difficult problem for larger groups. For example, if there is a group of five people legally signed to a lease, one student may be rejected while the other four are released.
Administrators claim that this is because, for the majority of beach houses on Lantern Point and Fairfield Beach Road, the legal amount of residents is four per house. However, for students living on Reef Road, or those choosing to live in apartments outside of the general beach area, this number increases.
According to Jason Downer, assistant director of Residence Life, there has been talk of increasing the amount of students who enter the lottery as a group.
“We are considering allowing groups of up to six,” he said.
Additionally, Downer said there is a possibility that, instead of each individual getting a number and the highest individual’s number being assigned to the group – as the lottery works now – a group would be assigned one comprehensive number. Therefore, regardless of group size, the mathematical chances of getting an adequate lottery number would be equal.
Downer said this will be discussed with students in April, but Rich said he fears the administration is avoiding the issue.
“In discussions with the office of Residence Life, it appears as though they believe it is too late in the game to make a change,” Rich said.
He said that the OCB lottery results were released in December, and no progress has since been made.
In addition, many students cannot wait until April to sign a lease; students also have difficulty opting out of leases signed before the lottery results are released.
However, both Dean of Students Tom Pellegrino and Downer have expressed their desire to work with the students, most notably through the Housing Lottery Committee, which consists of faculty and students from FUSA and IRHA.
Pellegrino said that the lottery system is “very amenable to change,” and that it will be under consideration.
Although the Senate is being proactive in finding solutions to future OCB lotteries, the class of 2009 will receive no resolution to its current lottery problems.
According to Downer, the Housing Committee is working on three proposals that will impact off-campus housing.
Any change appears welcome to the many students who have had difficulties with the lottery system.
As Kate Murphy ’09 stated on the wall of the Facebook group, “The OCB lottery was a nightmare.”
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