Housing lottery a mess

By: Kevin Carlin-Senior, Finance

As the housing lottery came to an end, I couldn’t help but reflect on the fact that while I will miss an inordinate amount of things about this university, the housing lottery will not be one of them.

I, along with my roommates who lived with me since freshman year in 3 Meyer, have sweated my way through two housing lotteries. It was an unpleasant experience – a sentiment shared by many.

I can’t help but realize that with some simple changes things could be greatly improved, not perfect, but improved.
First, get rid of all special interest housing. It’s pointless. UD wishes to promote community and spark discussion, awareness and ideas among students. It all sounds good in theory, but the execution of the idea isn’t practical.

Special interest housing has become nothing more than a way to bypass the housing lottery system. To this day I could not tell you where a single special interest house is, how many there are, what issues they champion or anything about them.

There is ample space on campus for any special interest group to meet and hold events; they do not need houses in the Ghetto or the Darkside to conduct their affairs.

Why should anyone be given preferential treatment in the lottery because they want to champion a social cause? By all means do whatever you want, but UD has a housing monopoly, which leaves students without sufficient alternative housing choices.

Now please don’t consider this to be an attack against everyone in special interest housing. I actually envy most of you because you were able to effectively work the system to your advantage while I sweated out my fate in the lottery like a schmuck.

I freely admit you were all smarter than me and I am sure most of you are effective in raising awareness about an issue you find significant. I wish I had had the foresight (and honestly the motivation) to do special interest housing.

I think if UD wanted to implement a better housing system they should eliminate all qualifications except being a student in good standing, and then just use the luck of the draw. Drawing straws or burnt matches, throw darts while blindfolded, race small animals, I don’t care whatever you have to do.

We just all need a place to lay our head at the end of the day and whether or not we decide to champion a social issue shouldn’t play a factor in where we get to do that.