Apparently you just can’t make everyone happy. For the second year in a row the Department of Residence Halls has tried to make students’ lives easier by allowing online housing sign up for dorms. The online sign-up times are allotted during weekends, allowing students to pick their next living situation while still in their pajamas from the comfort of their own room.
It’s hard to believe that just two years ago we were forced to get up at 7 a.m. to wait in line for our rooms. Remember missing classes because the lines were more than five hours long, camping out in the halls of Eaton, calling in late to work, and who know what else? It was just part of the process.
Fortunately, after continued criticism, the University and the Department of Residence Halls began offering online housing sign-up last year. The program, compared with previous procedures, is near perfect.
Yet, being the cynical students that we are, we must point out some issues that, if addressed, would make the process even better. Mainly, many students have complained that they are unable to sign up for suites in groups of four because other students with higher numbers will each take one room per suite, leaving five suites in a row with only one room taken. This has forced groups of four who want to share a suite utilize thefacebook or other methods to ask for the other students to move. If there was a way for the Department of Residence Halls to encourage students to sign up for suites with other “randoms,” then this could be prevented.
While the above is a reasonable concern brought forth by students, a different complaint is just plain lazy. If your future roommate/suitemate/apartment-mate-whatever-can’t go to a website and click “confirm” within a certain window, then they really can’t complain about not getting the room they wanted. It’s not that hard, and face it, it’s a heck of a lot easier then setting up camp in Eaton for five hours!