Residence Life is changing its lottery system to make University Park Apartments and sophomore housing decisions more fair and accessible for students. 

The new system not only gives all students an equal shot at where they potentially want to live but also allows them to have more of a say in the final decision of roommates and room assignments. 

In 2020, ACU purchased the University Park Apartments on campus and began a massive renovation project. This meant that each semester, different buildings would go offline for renovation and residents would have to be moved around to different buildings. This also meant that all assignments and roster spots were managed internally. 

Now that the project is fully complete, a new system is being put in place 

“We’re really excited to create a system where students are able to go in and select the type of unit that they want,” Emily Carlyle, director of residence life operations, said. “The way that we’re doing that to keep it fair and equal for everyone is to assign lottery time slots. Our system randomly generates it and that is the order in how students are able to go in and pick their unit.”

For sophomores, ResLife is going back to its pre-Covid system to make the process more manageable and helpful for students. 

Students will be randomly assigned a time slot through the same generated lottery system. During that time, they will be able to select what dorm, floor and room they would prefer to live in. Students can see all their options and choose their preferred living situation through their MyHousing portal. This new system differs from the post-Covid system that has been in place the past few years in which ResLife was directly in charge of all housing assignments. 

With these new systems in place, students will have more of an opinion, and a more direct view of the process. 

“Our goal is for students to feel like they have a lot of choice and autonomy in where they live,” Carlyle said. “And there’s limitations. There are going to be more people that want to live in Morris than there are beds in Morris. But our goal is for people to be happy with where they live.” 

Zach Snyder, director of residence life staff development, said moving forward, ResLife hopes this system will stay in place to not only take off some of the load for the directors but also give students a better idea of the process that goes into where they will be living. 

“We really encourage people, if they have not already, to go into their housing portal and complete their housing agreement beforehand,” Snyder said. ‘Otherwise, they’re gonna have a hard time actually getting signed up for housing because they wont be assigned a lottery and they won’t get assigned a time.”