The housing lottery process has been a changing experience almost every year at Wofford for seniors, junior and sophomores. These changes have been met with some student disappointment or confusion, but for Wofford’s residence life, it is about trying to find the best experience they can offer to students.
Kendra Ivins is the current Director of Residence Life at Wofford, moving up to this position last year. She spoke on the changes that have taken place over the last year regarding the housing process.
Ivins discussed that before 2020, the experience for new and returning students had been unchanged for a while.
“Prior to 2020, housing was selected in person with a housing lottery system,” Ivins said.
COVID-19 had some degree of influence over the changes that would be made, but Ivins stated that while it “provided different challenges to how we provide a secure environment, our goal has remained consistent.”
Regardless of the importance of COVID-19, 2020 and 2021 would see the beginning of the housing process becoming an online process.
“For (the) Fall 2021 (semester), the online housing portal was introduced,” Ivins said. “That year, assignments for returning students were completed through an online housing lottery, and assignments for first-year students were done manually.”
“For (the) Fall 2022 (semester), all housing assignments were completed manually, where students could (select) preference areas but had no determination as to their room selection.”
This was perhaps the biggest change that Residence Life had made but it would only exist for that one school year. While previous versions of the housing lottery were made before the current administration, it was through the current staff that the return to the housing lottery was made.
“The decision to return to the housing lottery for incoming and returning students was made this Spring to bring consistency for the future and provide students more autonomy over their housing decisions,” Ivins said.
Ivins stated that she and her team were “happy to return to this Wofford tradition and plan to keep this in place.”
Ivins also stated that there are no big plans for change but merely an ironing out of the current way of doing things.
“We plan to continue with the same overall housing selection process. We will continue to refine the process to make it smoother for those who participate,” Ivins said. “However, the steps for selection will remain the same: complete your returning student deposit and apply for housing, create a roommate group and select a room.”
Ivins and her team have stated that they plan to continue to make sure this information is widely available to students around campus throughout the process.
