March 24, 2004
By Anthony Loconsole
Staff Writer

The spring season not only brings sunny days to the SAU campus, but also the chance for on-campus students to decide where they’ll be calling home during the 2005-2006 school year.

Students who live on campus and plan on doing so next year are required to organize their housing groups and fill out the necessary paper work in order to choose housing. Once all the paperwork has been turned in and processed by the Residence Life office, a list is comprised and shows what order students will select housing.

The order is determined by total number of group priority points.  Students earn one priority point for each semester they are enrolled in a college or university, and one priority point for living on campus.  This system helps to put transfer students at less of a disadvantage.

 The housing group with the most points picks first, and so on down the list. If there is a tie for priority points, the Residence Life office looks at credit hours earned.  A tie at that level results in examining the groups’ cumulative GPA.

The housing forums are broken up into two groups.  One group is preferred, which is typically upperclassmen students who can choose from living in residence halls such as Hagen, Tiedemann, or the townhouses and houses that are owned by SAU.

The second group is traditional, which is mainly comprised of freshmen, who are only allowed to pick the available dorms of Cosgrove, Davis, Bectel, Rohlman and New Hall.

The preferred forum was held on March 17, 2005 at 3 p.m. in the Roglaski Center ballroom.  Over 150 students were present and selected their place of residence.  This year, Hagen Hall was divided into half male and half female.  Women were given three floors in Tiedemann Hall.

Director of residence life Matt Hansen said several campus houses were left off the selection list, with the goal that houses without students in them can be allocated for other purposes, whether it be green space or more parking.

At the end of the forum, there were some students that had still not been assigned housing.

“At the end of the forum, we expect to have students placed on a wait-list,” Hansen said.  “We know that we have people who select housing as an insurance policy while they look at other alternatives off campus.”

Students that are wait-listed will be placed as spaces open up.

“We know that we will open at capacity in the fall,” Hansen said.  “It is our goal, and responsibility for that matter, to ensure that we can provide everyone with housing.”

“The forum went well,” area coordinator for preferred housing Brandi Schuman said.  “A few students were upset with their housing, but overall I thought it went rather smoothly.”

The traditional housing forum was held on Wednesday at 3 p.m. in the Rogalski Center.

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