MY FIRST thought when I was told to start considering where to live next year was "Wait,I just got here." I felt overwhelmed, and therefore withdrew from the idea of looking for an off-Grounds apartment, finding little comfort in the fact that the deadline to apply for on-Grounds housing is Dec. 1.
John Evans, director of accommodations at University Housing, said in an email that the purpose of setting the on-Grounds housing deadline in the fall semester was "to make it possible for students to be able to look at all of their options, both on Grounds and off Grounds, at the same time" so that they "would be able to make more thoughtful decisions about where they would live." It does make sense for students to look at all of their options at the same time, because they can make better comparisons if they look at locations within the same time frame.
This does not mean the University needs to make the deadline for on-Grounds housing so early, however. Rather, it should continue to provide open house tours of on-Grounds housing around the same time people are looking at off-Grounds apartments that are available for lease. The open house tours of on-Grounds upper-class housing this year took place during the last weekend in October, and based on Evans' information this date presumably was set because most off-Grounds apartments are available for lease in the fall. There is nothing to stop the University from keeping the date for the open house tours the same while moving the application deadline for on-Grounds housing to the spring.
Whether to live on or off Grounds is a choice students make based on more than merely the price and location of each option.
There is also the consideration of the people with whom they will live. Living in the best location could be worthless if the people you live with turn out to be people with whom you do not get along or communicate well.
Yet the decision about who you are going to live with for a year can be difficult if you have only been in college a few months. Hence, first-year students often experience a great deal of uncertainty about whether or not their second-year living situation will be fantastic, miserable or an awkward in-between.
Though the University cannot do anything to change the fact that leases must be signed early, it could alleviate first-year students' anxiety by moving the on-Grounds housing deadline to a later date to give them more time to make decisions about their housemates.
Also relevant is the fact that the on-Grounds housing application deadline falls very close to the time when first years are selecting classes for the spring semester. It is difficult enough to figure out a schedule for the spring semester, so compounding this with the necessity of making a decision about one's living situation for the next year can be extremely stressful. This could undermine the goal that Evans said the University was trying to accomplish since students might make poor choices because of the pressure they face.
I am all for making informed decisions about housing. That information, however, should not just encompass the physical characteristics and price tag of the place you are investigating - it should include the personalities of the people with whom you will be sharing a living space.
I have a group of friends that I am planning on living with next year, all of whom I get along with; I consider myself lucky. For me, everything fell into place, but I still experienced some stress-ridden moments because of the early housing deadline, and probably not everyone is as fortunate as I am. Moving the deadline to the spring semester would calm the panic of many first-year students, and take the weight off of a lot of shoulders.
Katherine Ripley's column appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at k.ripley@cavalierdaily.com.
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