By: Petty Labelle, Staff Writer
The week of March 21, the annual housing lottery at Wofford started. Weeks prior, e-mails about the $500 reservation deposit due date and housing lottery details were sent out. Demario Joules-Over-Seconds, assistant director of residence life, sent the e-mail with those details.
To make the e-mail short: four rising seniors will be given priority in the village, four rising juniors will be given priority in Wightman and Lesesne area and four rising sophomores will be given priority in Shipp and Dupre area—for the most part. Some rising sophomores will end up in Carlisle, which is a freshman and sophomore living area.
Now, there have been horror stories of housing lottery glitches, and the feared chance of ending up on the waiting list.
“When I was a rising sophomore,” Kaci Stamp, class of 2018 says, “I signed up for Shipp and Dupre because that’s where my class is supposed to be. Unfortunately, my lottery decision said I was going to live in Marsh. In Marsh?! That’s designated living for freshman, not sophomores. So I ended up on the waiting list due to the glitch, and ended up in Carlisle. I was upset. I felt so distanced from most of my classmates who lived on the Horseshoe.”
“Well, I tried to warn Kaci,” Corey Jenkins, class of 2015 says. “I was an RA, so I didn’t have to experience the horrors of the housing lottery. I told Kaci that with or without a glitch, she was going to live in Carlisle because she didn’t have suitemates, or a roommate. A person with no roommates was definitely going to end up on the waiting list, and end up with the least desired housing. Duh.”
Now that those persons who may not have known how the housing lottery operates have an understanding of the system, the fate of the Class of 2018 is in question. The Class of 2018 was deemed the largest class of students in Wofford’s history. They will be rising juniors next fall and expect to at least live in the Wightman or Lesesne, a.k.a. Les-White, area. At least.
Unfortunately, that is not going to happen.
“Some juniors are going to be upset,” Danny Stamos, resident director from residence life says. “Because even when we place a few of them in the Village, and the rest in Les-White, well… there will still be a good bit of them left over. We were going to put the rest in Shipp or Dupre area, but sophomores have priority and will fill the area first.”
Where will the leftover class of 2018 members be housed?
Have no fear, because simple back-up housing is in the works. The Greek Village will be finished by next fall, so that means that the sororities and fraternities will be using those houses as their offices. This also means that the rooms in Anna Todd will then be vacant. Residence Life approves that living areas will be constructed over the summer for the leftover juniors in Anna Todd.
Residence Life says they are doing all they can to make sure that no student is left without housing. So if that means that intramurals and the Campus Safety office have to move to a different location, then that is what has to happen.
“Don’t blame us. We’re trying to make spaces for the junior class to live in since they’re so big,” Residence Director Aiden Jones says. “If you want to blame anyone, blame Admissions for not cracking down on the college acceptance requirements, making it harder for us to place people.”
Disclaimer: This is a satirical article of pure fiction for our April edition, The Old Black & Blue
