It happens every spring. The daffodils and dogwoods begin to bloom, students’ calendars fill up with papers and projects and the impending stress of finding a roommate and place to live draws near. The battle over who will get into Walker and out of Mayfield can turn vicious. Every friend except one makes it onto the hall with their friend who is a new resident assistant. Groups of juniors are just a few hours short of getting into a townhouse.
Then there’s the standing in line with your roommate at your specified time, sometimes missing class, to select the best room on the hall on a first-come, first-serve basis. This antiquated and inefficient system causes unnecessary stress in students’ lives on top of their already busy schedules.
For these reasons, we The Threefold Advocate urge John Brown University to update its room selection process. With just a few changes, the system could be made much simpler and far less stressful.
It would be best to move the system online, much like our current system for class registration. Students would still receive a designated time to go online and select a room, but they would not have to miss class to make it to their designated time.
Another problem arises when students do not get into the building or room they were hoping to get. While this often comes down to the simple priority of students with more hours or seniority—which we fully support—it would be helpful to give students more backup options. For example, if students do not get into a townhouse, it would be helpful if they could then get a chance to get into the apartments if there are open rooms.
There is also the stress of choosing a roommate and which dorm to live in. Many students wait until resident assistants are chosen so they can live on a hall with their friends. Because RAs are chosen so late in the spring, it limits the time some students have to find a roommate. We suggest that RAs and ARDs be selected earlier in the semester to allow students more time to decide where to live.
These changes would make the room draw process much less stressful and more efficient. We The Threefold urge JBU to take this into consideration for the future.