The University sent offers to 47 rising fourth-year students Tuesday for Lawn rooms for the 2018-19 school year. Living in a Lawn room — the original dorms for the University — is an honor reserved for students with a record of “unselfish service to the University and Charlottesville/Albemarle County communities, and achievement in their respective fields of activity and academics,” the Office of the Dean of Students’ website reads.
There were a total of 282 applications. Of the 47 offers, 22 were extended to female University students and 25 were extended to male students.
Twenty-six of the applicants who received offers identify as caucasian, nine identify as African-American, eight identify as Asian or Asian-American, six identify as Hispanic and four did not specify their racial identity.
By school, 36 of potential future Lawn residents are students in the College, three are in the Engineering School, three are in McIntire, two are in Batten and one each is in Curry, Nursing and Architecture.
These statistics were released by the Office of the Dean of Students, but according to Dean of Students Allen Groves, they don’t tell the whole story.
“This isn’t the full Lawn yet — this is 47 of the rooms, there are still seven rooms that haven’t been selected yet because they’re done through different processes, and someone who is selected might decide not to live on the Lawn,” Groves said. “It’s rare, but it happens.”
The process for Lawn selections is traditionally competitive and complex, said Malcolm Stewart, a fourth-year Batten student, outgoing Lawn Senior Resident and chair of the Lawn Selection Committee.
The applications were read by a committee of 54 students, composed of 27 randomly selected fourth years and 27 committee members from various organizations on Grounds. The members are selected from a wide range of backgrounds and organizations to ensure diversity among the communities and schools they represent. The group is split randomly into two groups, and each committee member is anonymously assigned to read and vote on a set number of applications.
The top applications are brought back and read by every committee member. Each member has again a number of “yes” votes to distribute among the applications remaining. The applications with the highest number of votes are sent to the ODOS for final approval, Stewart said.
“I would say that what makes the Lawn particularly special is that these are students who were selected by their fourth-year peers,” Groves said. “In other words, their peers looked at 282 outstanding applicants and concluded that these 47 should live on the Lawn.”
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