Everyone, at some point or another, manages to find something to get upset with Campus Life about. I’ve found mine. So have three of my friends. Housing. Now, it’s not like we’re lazy buffoons, we just forgot to do the online application. I didn’t even know about it. Yet now we’re placed behind the Spring Into Guilford first-years, and that feels like a slap in the face.

We pay enough per year that even if we do miss the deadline for the online application, we should still be ahead of incoming first-years. That shouldn’t even be a concern.

The issue is the online application. I understand having the paper housing application, but what’s need for the online application? According to Aaron Fetrow, Associate Dean of Campus Life, the online application registers you as eligible for housing. That makes sense. Everything is on the manual application that’s on the online one, yet you need to fill them both out. Same information, different mediums.

On the manual application, there’s no statement saying you need to fill out another application, or do anything other than hand your current copy in. I don’t want Campus Life to baby us current first-years, but we’re new to this. That’s not to say we can’t figure it out, but why not include a sentence on the manual application, reminding students to fill out the online application if they haven’t already done so?

Another thing that bothered our little housing group was that Campus Life said we had gotten the apartment, only to be told on Selection Day that we didn’t. Why can’t someone in Campus Life send a mass email, a day or two before the deadline, to everyone who hadn’t filled out the online application? That’s a reasonable request.

More reasonable than wasting paper and time printing, then placing, pamphlets in people’s mailboxes. I was told repeatedly that I had one placed in my mailbox, yet when I checked it for a package, there was no such pamphlet. It’s far easier and cheaper to send an email. Then everyone will get what they need, and the college will save money.

The administration isn’t the IRS, and if there’s a special case where a whole apartment group forgot to do the online application, but were accepted to live in the apartments, they shouldn’t dismiss the group. Another reasonable suggestion.

Here’s where I get happy.

While I was sitting on my butt being upset, others (40 to be exact) were in the same boat as me and my friends. Their parents called, our parents called, and we all got upset together. Now, there are changes in the housing registration.

Unbeknownst to us, there was a massive increase in the amount of applications for the student apartments. According to Campus Life, this was due to both the large size of the first-year class, and the new student apartments.

There used to be plenty of room in the apartments after Selection Week, and thus, the people that forgot their online applications would still be able to get an apartment on April 15. Now, because of the higher demand, Campus Life can’t be as lenient with the rules, which led to the anger this year. Fetrow also said that Campus Life will be checking applications daily, and promptly notifying students what is missing, instead of waiting until Selection Week.

As to being placed behind Spring Into Guilford students, it makes sense, but is still a slap in the face. Yet after talking to Fetrow, it seems that the April 15 deadline for last chance housing will be moved up, coming before Spring Into Guilford. Wonderful.

Two weeks ago, I wrote an editorial on working to change things for the betterment of the campus, and this is just one example. Hopefully there will now be more communication between Campus Life and students regarding housing policy changes, and that is always a great thing.