Not Everyone Is Gonna Get A Room

It's Room Draw time, once again. It is that time of year when college students all across, uh, campus are seeking out roommates, scoping sweet bi-level triples, and program houses close to the academic side. And it is once again time for the rising Sophomores to get "anally raped by Housing" (an actual quote). Every year, small, residential, liberal-arts colleges across America experience the effect of larger and larger first year classes. We save 550 or so spaces on our campus for incoming first year students, which means that a large percentage of rising sophomores (and some really screwed Juniors) don't get housing. At the end of the story, about 96 students haven't been housed yet. It's something that happens every year, and we expected it and are prepared to deal. Eventually the summer "melt" takes place- students withdrawl or take a leave from school, not as many first years decide to attend as who paid deposits, etc. and the Sophomores get the leftovers over the summer.
An interesting twist this year is that one of our residence halls is being used by the faculty (their building is being rennovated) for their offices for the duration next year. They had their option of a less-desireable-to-students portion of a residence hall, or a cluster of several small houses (which undoubtedly would receive some new carpet and paint ahead of time) but chose the nicer, more desirable hall instead. After tonight, we thought we'd make t-shirts based on the actual numbers at the end of Room Draw:

Number of students left to be housed: 96
Number of potential spaces in the building being used by faculty: 96
Level of frustration to staff and students: priceless

Like I said, we expect this every year, but it doesn't make the situation any easier on the students and it doesn't make us feel any less bad about what we have to do (it also makes us more annoyed than ever with the selfishness of those tenured-sons-of-bitches). Some people are just gonna end up with a bad situation. It's kinda like the recent rejection letter I received from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. I never actually completed my application, nor did I formally withdraw it. I would have rejected me too. The point is, you can try as hard as you want, and you can complain to the highest authorities in a strongly worded email, but real life is real life. You have to pay your dues, so to speak, and unless you're a.) God (or the Pope) or b.) a Trustee, then you'll just have to deal for the time being. (For instance, the argument that you pay 35 grand to go to school here, isn't completely true, because first of all, no you don't, the government does, or maybe your parents do; and second of all, it's COMPLETELY RANDOM- WE ARE NOT OUT TO GET YOU.)
I feel bad about all the kids who got "anally raped by Housing" tonight, and I sure do wish we could screw the incoming first years instead but that's bad for retention. It's all a part of growing up, maybe this is one of the teachable moments we talk about in Student Affairs- where we learn to deal with rejection, pay our dues, and go on living without throwing ourselves on the floor when we don't get our way (actually happened). Sometimes in life, we get the sweet-ass double single in the Senior hall, and other times we get the dusty basement room in the Greek building, and sometimes we get nothing at all. Not everyone is gonna get a room.