The women’s sophomore housing registration server quickly crashed Wednesday, just minutes after the registration process opened.
The server was unable to handle the number of requests it received and crashed. The registration process was impeded only for female registrants, said Bob Strader, director of residence life education and housing. ResLife quickly identified the error, suspended female registration, wiped all registration requests and re-scheduled another female housing registration for Friday.
The new registration plan uses a stratified, randomly-selected lottery system. Starting at 11 a.m., a computer program will select groups of 50 students to register. The system will select another group every 15 minutes after that until all students register, Strader said.
The male registration process did not overwhelm the server for two reasons, Strader said. First, the freshman class has a greater number of women than men. Second, the male contingent apparently inadvertently spaced their registration process out.
The registration process was not only a hassle for staff, but for students as well.
“It was frustrating because you want to know where you are going to live, and the semester is almost over,” said Hanna Riddle, freshman kinesiology major from Murphy. “Everyone was waiting to get the exact place that they wanted, and we didn’t know if it worked, so we just kept trying.”
Jayna Hanson, freshman kinesiology major from Live Oak, said she liked the new system, but wished it hadn’t given her such a headache.
“I’ve never really had good experiences with technology,” Hanson said. “I was accessing it through my laptop and my phone, but neither worked. But I do think it was a good idea to use the software to register everyone instead of lining everyone up.”
The update to the housing registration process was engineered by ResLife, allowing freshmen to choose their roommate, residence hall and specific room.
According to an email from the Office of Residence Life Education and Housing, students with special housing needs that had already worked with ResLife to secure housing may email reslife@acu.edu to confirm (their) housing assignment.
