According to Senior Associate Dean of Students and Director of Residential Life Charri Boykin-East, this new process seeks to make Room Draw less difficult. She added, however, that the Room Draw policies and procedure will still be distributed in paper form.
With the new process, students can log into the Room Draw Web site and create their room groups through a pop-up directory. After submission of the application, students will receive e-mails, which will notify them of their room group number, each room group member's Living Unit Value (LUV) and their Room Draw number. Students listed in more than one room group will receive e-mails telling them to resolve the overlap. Students who apply for room draw through a proxy will also receive an e-mail.
The new Web site will also have floorplans like its predecessor. However, the ticker, which notifies students of available rooms, will be redesigned. "On the actual nights of room draw, there will be updates online on what rooms have been chosen and therefore, no longer available," said Student Housing Advisory Committee (SHAC) member Kita Lantman '08E. "While this was done in past years, this year you can search within a dorm to see what rooms have been chosen, as well as who or what room group selected the room."
Last Friday, nine students, including members of SHAC and several Resident Counselors (RC), took part in a test run. Overall, the new Web site has been met with approval. "The Web site is entirely comprehensive, providing easy access to any information students might need including floor plans, ordered lists and lip sync updates," said Michael Donovan '08.
The new Web site also means that students will not face time pressure. "You don't have to rush to the [Residential Office] last minute," said SHAC member Edward Ramos '08. "You can do it from the comfort of your computer. It automatically sends out confirmation e-mails, which is damn cool."
With the new changes, Residential Life hopes to decrease the amount of paperwork, such as transcribing information from the applications to spreadsheets. Residential Life and IT also expect to decrease human error. "Because the application process is online and student information is being drawn from the College's main frame, the possibility of human error has been drastically reduced," said Lantman.
According to Director of Systems, Network and Telecommunications John Manly, the changes also resolve the question of whether electronic support for Room Draw would remain. Previously, the student-run NOTE system supported Room Draw. "The Residential Life Office became concerned about the continuity of support from year to year as various NOTE members graduated, so we felt that it was important to move the critical Room Draw services to College-owned servers to be certain that they would be maintained into the future."
Residential Life plans to continue improving the Room Draw process. "We're nervous, but we're hoping that ultimately, all goes well," said Boykin-East. "We're hoping that as we go on next year, and the year after that, that we can tweak it a little bit more."