Posted: 03/28/07

Housing crunch for upper classmen
What will next year bring?

Andrew Parise | contributing writer
aparise@smcvt.edu

With the townhouse draw complete, some juniors and seniors have been left scratching their heads with confusion.

There are several issues that dictated upper classman housing, including current housing policy, the number of available beds in the townhouses, and mainly the popularity of the four-man townhouse, says housing director Sheryl Fleury. For some upperclassmen, a last minute policy change killed any hopes of living in a coveted 200s or 300s townhouse.

Got S.C.R.E.W.E.D.?

As an incentive for students to attend Got S.K.I.L.L.S.? events, prizes such as top housing picks were rewarded. (Andrew Parise, photo)

Got S.K.I.L.L.S.? The question can be found on doorways, walls, and bulletin boards on campus. This year, St. Michael’s College started a new campaign called “Got S.K.I.L.L.S?” to encourage students to go and participate in events, lectures, concerts, and to emphasize dignity and diversity on the campus.

As an incentive to go to these events, prizes were awarded for attending, including gift certificates and other rewards that would be eventually raffled off.

The grand prizes were the top three housing lottery numbers. Leslie Pomponi, a rising senior who attended five events, says the events were informative.

“All the events I went to were well attended," she says. “Even if students just went for the raffle, they must have learned something."

In order to be entered in the housing lottery raffle, a student would have to attend and fill out an evaluation card at a minimum of five “Got S.K.I.L.L.S.?” events according to the original policy. Pomponi was entered into the raffle, having attended five events, but says she was disappointed to discover a last minute policy change which allowed people who attend only four events to be put in the housing lottery.

Fleury says the reason for this change was because of a mishap at the MLK Convocation. This was a “Got S.K.I.L.L.S.?” event, but organizers underestimated how many students would go, she says. This caused them not to have enough “Got S.K.I.L.L.S.?” evaluation forms for all students to fill out, she explains.

In order to make sure everyone benefited from going, Fleury decided to give “Got S.K.I.L.L.S.?” credit to all students, she says, including those who already attended five programs.

Pomponi says she was disappointed by a last minute policy change which allowed people who attend only four Got S.K.I.L.L.S.? events to be put in the housing lottery. (Andrew Parise, photo)

Technically, the raffle wasn’t changed from five programs to four, it just gave students who went to only four programs a chance to be in the housing raffle, Fleury says.

Pomponi says she is not too upset because she didn’t go to those events for the purpose of being put in the lottery. She would have gone to the events even if there weren’t any incentives, she says.

“The raffle was more like an added bonus,” she says.

Without success in the raffle, Pomponi was forced to pull numbers with everyone else. She pulled 223 in the housing lottery while the best number her priority-one group of four girls picked was 147, she says. The group will be living in a 100s townhouse, which, she says, isn’t too much of a step down from a 300s townhouse, which is what she originally wanted.

Junior tenants

With growing class numbers, fewer people get to live in the townhouses since the change in class numbers doesn’t affect the number of beds available in those areas, Fleury says.

“Nothing has changed at all about townhouse lottery,” she says. “We have large classes going through room selection and only so many beds in certain areas.”

Several juniors will occupy townhouses next year. These juniors took a different route than most of the seniors and applied for a six-person townhouse. Because so few seniors applied for six-person townhouses, priority two groups will occupy several of these houses.

It was by no fault of the system or clever deceit by the juniors to acquire this living situation, they just got lucky with what the seniors did, says Mike Mulligan, a rising junior living in a 200s townhouse next year.

“The system works," he says. "We were priority three, so if there were six seniors going for a townhouse, they would have gotten it over us."

Mulligan, who was realistically planning on living in a suite, says he is excited to be living in a townhouse, especially since there were two juniors on their housing card.

He feels bad for seniors who didn’t get a townhouse, he says, but he believes the system is fair.

“If we had gotten a four person townhouse I would have thought it wasn’t fair,” he says. “But that’s why we have priorities.”

The best ticket number in Mulligan’s group was 100, and according to Fleury, the 200s and 300s were filled by ticket number 111.

“But remember, there are only 60 townhouse units in the 200's and 300's, including both 4 and 6 person units,” she says.

Unfortunately for Mulligan’s would-be suite-mates, their card is now invalid and the other 6 on their suite card will now have to find different housing.

“Let’s just say they’re not happy with me right now,” he says.

Life on campus

There are future concerns about finding housing for every student, says director of admission Jacqueline Murphy.

Still, with an increasing enrollment, admissions just finished sending out their admittance letters, accepting a couple hundred more than the year before, Murphy says. This is due to a growing trend in small, liberal arts colleges like St. Michael’s, she says.

The trend is that the school is drawing applications from higher qualified students who are also applying to more selective schools, Murphy explains. Since they are better students, many get accepted to the more selective school and do not enroll at St. Michael’s, she says.

Because of this, St. Michael’s needs to accept more students assuming that more than usual will decline, she explains.

“The most important thing is that it’s not simple, not science,” she says.

Still, there are enough beds to go around. According to the St. Michael’s College 2006 Fact Book there are 1,970 beds available to St. Michael’s students while there are only 1,909 students enrolled as of spring 2007.

"We are preparing ourselves for a higher number," Murphy says. "But we won't let it get out of hand." (Andrew Parise, photo)

Yet, while there are some left-over beds, there is still a problem if the college keeps growing as it has, Murphy says.

“We are preparing ourselves for a higher number,” she says. “But we won’t let it get out of hand.”

There are plans, however, if the enrollment numbers do rapidly increase.

According to Murphy, when the Cashman, Pontigny, and Canterbury were built four years ago the original plan was to build four buildings, not three. At the time, there wasn’t a need for a fourth building; however, there is space and plans for a fourth building to go up, if need be, in a few years, she says.

Fleury says she is aware of the concept, but is unsure if construction is still being considered.

“It’s possible, but this question is beyond me,” Fleury says. “There are blueprints somewhere when St. Michael's College began to design Cashman but I am not sure if the fourth building is still in the vision.”

Also, Murphy says there are also plans to get all students out of Founders and make it 100 percent offices. She says the need to refurbish Founders is great and hopefully it will happen in the next few years.