Dorm selection goes digital

Freshman Caroline Mathis thought she had it all figured out. \nShe knew she wanted to live in a dorm room on the same floor in Read Center that she lives on this year. And she wanted to stay in the performing-arts living community that she is currently a part of.\nWhen she received notification by e-mail from Residential Programs and Services saying she was allowed to complete phase one of the online housing assignments, she was confused.\n"I remember thinking, 'What on Earth is this!'" Mathis said. "The first thing I did was yell at my roommate because I didn't know what it was, and I asked her, and she didn't know either."\nThis year, RPS introduced the online housing program, allowing students to reserve and choose exactly what room and where they want to live next year.\nCurrent students can now set up their on-campus living arrangements for next year without paperwork and phone calls. But, as Mathis said, the unfamiliar online system brings with it a new set of problems.\nThe overall goal of the new housing system is for students to serve themselves, said Sara Ivey Lucas, RPS's assistant director of housing assignments. \nIvey Lucas said selecting a specific room to live in is all done using the Internet.\nThrough this system, a student can take care of business during a time that works for him or her.\nJunior Sarah Romano, who lives in Willkie Quad and plans to live on campus next year, said she likes the online system IU developed for its different programs.\n"I really like how I can go online whenever I want and I have access to it," she said. "I don't have to hike to Maxwell or wherever it may be to do stuff -- instead I can do what I need to do and everything is right there in my own home." \nThe online housing system was unveiled Nov. 27, 2006, when the first phase, during which residents can choose to retain their current spaces, began. \nIvey Lucas guaranteed that RPS will not go into the system and make changes after students make their selections.\nShe warned that this year, some students living in Willkie did not pay attention to the phase assignments and did not reserve their current rooms; as a result, other students reserved the same spaces. \nWhen the now-ousted students wanted their rooms back, they couldn't request their rooms for next year because they had already been taken.\nSo far, Ivey Lucas said the system has been successful: currently, about 1,300 students have reserved a room. She said that with the upcoming phases RPS is aiming for about 2,000 more students to register for spaces to return next year.\nIvey Lucas said RPS started housing registration earlier than in years past, when registration usually started around Jan. 15. For the next school year, it started Nov. 27, 2006.\n"We're still hoping for 1,500 more students, and we think that will happen," Ivey Lucas said. "Anecdotally, we have heard from students that most are waiting for Phase 4, when they can move around between the 11 residence halls on campus." \nIn addition, students know more about where they want to live than RPS does. Now students can choose what they want in a room and where they want their room to be, Ivey Lucas said.\nSince this is the first year the online system is in place, Ivey Lucas said there are changes to be made. One issue in particular is how the system offers double rooms as singles. Some pairs of roommates both requested their current rooms as singles for next year, and the system granted them both the same room but marked it as a single. Ivey Lucas said they fixed the problem by going online and finding new rooms for the students.