IT HAS taken me the past month to settle into my own dorm room. Only recently did I get around to doing anything that could be loosely defined as decorating, and I've just started being able to find what I need when I need it. But just as I have finished moving in for this year, I am confronted by a far greater issue than the arrangement of desks or where to put the fridge: Where am I going to live next year?
It is barely October. I am never entirely sure what I will be doing for the remainder of this day - much less tomorrow or next week or next month. So how exactly am I supposed to decide where I am living next year over the course of these next weeks? Because it is official: The frenzy for off-Grounds housing has begun.
With the first semester hardly a month old, the charge to find a plush living space is at full force. Groups of current friends - whether they still will be friends later this year, after they have signed a lease, remains to be seen - are calling realtors, visiting apartments and comparing properties. Meanwhile, I consider hanging all my posters a major accomplishment.
Needless to say, I am behind in the game of finding off-Grounds housing. But watching from the sideline, it is difficult to imagine a game with more inherently flawed rules. Although it is unfortunate that students must begin looking for housing so early, the University has the power to make this process easier.
There are legitimate reasons why someone, particularly a first year, might be unsure about where they are living next year: Questions regarding roommates, pledging and other activities all are valid excuses for being hesitant about signing a lease. In almost every case, the early signing period and the flood of activity surrounding it work against students.
Current students who wish to maximize their options and look at University housing have to go through a housing lottery, in which the results are unknown until the second semester. Should a student not receive a desirable housing assignment, he or she realistically has very little time to find a suitable living space or any living space at all because so many of the properties are leased well before Thanksgiving break. Given the current balance of power in the real estate market, the landlords are unlikely to push back the current signing date. The current signing period is advantageous to landlords for the same reasons it is detrimental to students: The timing capitalizes on the anxieties and concerns of students.
The landlords, who shoulder the real blame in creating this dilemma, are unlikely to change the way they do business. Instead, even if it is not at fault for the housing problems facing students, the University could help with the solution by altering the schedule for on-Grounds housing.
But thus far, University officials have dismissed this as a real solution. According to Mark Doherty, Director of the Housing Division, "There is no magical formula. The outside market reacts to whatever we do."
While no one disputes this claim, there must be a logical stopping point. Given that the off-Grounds market already coincides with the beginning of the fall semester, it is unlikely that landlords would be able to start offering leases any sooner. Even if they were to synchronize both signing periods, Mr.Doherty pointed out other problems in changing the on-Grounds dates, explaining that "My concern is that students are given sufficient time and information to decide where to live."
But by moving up the housing lottery to coincide with the off-Grounds signing period, the University would immediately grant every student, whether desiring to live on-Grounds or off, more options and more alternatives in determining where to live. Students, armed with a greater array of choices, would no longer be at the mercy of the landlords, knowing that they could pursue housing options in both venues and then compare their options. Thus, students would be better equipped to make smarter decisions under far less pressure.
But this still forces students to make housing choices in October, where Dorherty's concerns are relevant. One possible way to solve this is to offer two rounds of on-Grounds housing assignments, permitting students more control over their search for housing.
While debate has focused on the issue of first-year housing recently, the real housing problem arises only when students are forced to look beyond Aldermann or McCormick Road. While being faced with this challenge at such an early time in the semester is unpleasant - and arguably, unfair - the University can help students confront this dilemma. In the meantime, the current issues of this year will continue to take a back seat to a more urgent concern for the next.
(John Bailey is a Cavalier Daily viewpoint writer.)
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