After changes in the housing selection process were met with considerable student backlash in the last two weeks, Matt Pioch, director of housing, said the university is doing its best to address concerns.

Last Wednesday, March 28, selections for suite-style doubles were released to the campus community. There are a projected 44 doubles being made available for next year—compared to the approximately 72 doubles in use this year.

Pioch said 10 more doubles were made available to students than the administration had originally planned—but students still took to social media to voice their discontent.

“We were adding 38 triples to the suite-style halls, and after getting a lot of student feedback and just hearing that there were a lot of major student concerns with that direction, we were able to move some things around…” said Pioch.

Now, 28 triples will be added to suite-style housing instead of 38, and the university also opened more on-campus houses as options.

Pioch said the university always sets certain houses aside for students with special living requirements or food allergies; and this year, had one set aside to start a “living learning community” center through the Center for Service Learning.

“After seeing the crunch and the student response, I spoke with Rev. [Jim] Tinnemeyer, [vice president] of Student Services, and we came to the decision that this would not be the year to open that living learning center and really that on-campus house should be open to the people that were next in line in the scoring, in the way we score our house applicants.”

Opening more on-campus houses has allowed the university to house two more groups of four students—including a group of students who last week, started and promoted a campus-wide petition to revise
housing regulations.

Six nursing majors, Alyssa O’Day, Shaley Schreckengost, Kaitlin Potutschnig, Jessica Matrogan, Natalie Fortna and Brittany Kennedy, had gathered more than 500 signatures before the university offered them two of the newly-available houses.

“It just happens that the individuals that were leading the protest all were next in line,” Pioch said. “Which, at the end of the day, makes sense, since they were the ones most frustrated because they were very close to getting into an on-campus house.”

Matrogan, who started the petition, said they are still planning to submit the petition and a written proposal to Rev. Tinnemeyer.

“Even if we didn’t benefit from it, we were hoping, at least in the future, they would change something,” said Matrogan.

Pioch said applicants for on-campus houses are put through a score sheet that considers collective grade point averages and credit hours, and the housing committee examines essay submissions, disciplinary violations and other factors.

This year, Pioch said several applicants for on-campus houses had scores within 0.4 units of each other, making selection all the more difficult.

Despite all the shuffling, students are still frustrated by the decreased availability of doubles in suite-style halls, as well as the changes to the selection process. In years past, students would take part in a “selection night” where students with a certain number of credits were able to choose their dormitory and room location. This year, under the new application process, students could mark a preference for floor and dorm hall, but were given no guarantees.

“In creating this double application that happens earlier…anyone applying for the suite-style halls is not afforded the luxury of picking the specific room anymore,” said Pioch. “And that just has to do with the logistics of trying to make everyone happy…”

Still, the amount of doubles available next year has been cut by approximately half, something Pioch attributes to the small size of the 2018 graduating class.

“The senior class we have was a rather small class when they came in, and so when they graduate, they will be replaced by a freshman class that is in similar size to the freshman classes we’ve had [more recently],” he said. “In doing so though, our suite-style halls have been more open the last few years because of that smaller class size with the senior class.”

Pioch said he and other members of the housing committee were surprised by the outpour of negativity toward the increase in triples, thinking that students would appreciate another opportunity to reduce the cost of housing.

He said that while last week’s petition has not been officially brought to his office, he is still working to address students’ concerns as best he can.

“We do hear the students; we do understand the frustrations,” he said. “We’ve been working very hard and diligently to address the concerns, and there are still places available in suite-style halls. They are just in a triple capacity, which will save $1,460 a year, which is pretty significant.”

Matrogan said her group’s goal is to encourage fellow students to use their resources and approach the problem respectfully.

“We appreciate that they’re listening and we know that they’re listening,” said Matrogan. “So it’s important for other students to know that if they have a problem don’t just take it out on Twitter…you have to use your voice and speak up to someone who’s listening.”