Considerably fewer students are going to defer room draw this year compared to previous years.

"I think it went okay, there seemed to be a lot fewer upset people than last year," commented Dean of Campus Life Matt Taylor. After three days of room draw earlier this week, 791 students had claimed rooms out of an eligible 977. The low number of deferrals surprised many students because after the first night of room draw, a much higher number of seniors-to-be had drawn rooms than was expected.

"The first night, the number of seniors who drew rooms was very high, and it made for a crunch the next night," said Taylor. "There were so many people drawing rooms, I think [Housing Director] Deanna [Chalfant] was there until 11pm that night."

Photo by Ben Mirus Melissa Diaz ’02 is about to fill out her room draw form.

Taylor attributed part of the high number to the low number of requests to live off campus that the Office of Campus life received for next year. Residence Halls and Food Commissioner Brian Andrews ’01 said, "I know of a handful of seniors that drew into rooms but were also looking to live off-campus. If so their rooms would go up for deferral."

The crunch was apparently evened out Tuesday night during the Junior-to-be room draw. It was much less crowded than the other two, largely due to the number of students going abroad next semester. Taylor could not provide any clue as to whether or not this had anything to do with the balancing of the room crunch, but he noted, "Going into the third night the number of rooms for rising sophomores was significantly more [than last year]." Andrews speculated that it may have been due to more juniors electing to live off-campus, but said that there was no way he could know until the official deferral statements were received this summer.

The Office of Campus Life has made significant changes in the organization of first-years which may have also contributed to the lower number of deferrals. Two sponsor groups were moved out of Harwood and Walker, while Mudd-Blaisdell and Lyon each gained two. This reorganization opened up more two-room doubles for upperclassmen in Walker, including the courtyards, and allowed for more singles in Harwood to become available.

"[With the reorganization] we tried to make a significant number of good sophomore rooms available in Harwood," said Taylor.

As far as the students who are going to defer are concerned, Taylor states, "There are two factors in the equation. One is what the size of the freshman class is, and the other is the number of people who choose to live off-campus."

The problem of where to place the deferred students should not be as great as in previous years because of the lower number of students who left the room draw without a room. Andrews stated, "There was less disappointment. More housing options are available."