The RHA voted after contentious debate last night to recommend keeping juniors from being pulled into South Campus Commons and University Courtyards suites.
The common arrangement – whereby those who have a low enough housing priority number to gain a spot in the housing complexes pull other students into their suites – would be restricted to sophomores and freshmen.
The new restrictions would close yet another door to juniors looking to grab spots in Courtyards and Commons next year, the latest step in an ongoing effort to deal with the on-campus housing shortage.
Resident Life Director Deb Grandner announced earlier in the semester that juniors will not be given on-campus housing for the second year.
Under the priority system for housing, sophomores have first priority in Commons and Courtyards, followed by juniors. Under the Residence Hall Association’s legislation, juniors would only be able to enter Commons or Courtyards if there are any spots left after all interested sophomores have applied.
And Resident Life projects that anywhere between 300 and 1,000 sophomores will lose on-campus housing next year, making the competition for Commons and Courtyards even tighter.
The legislation is a recommendation to Grandner, who is planning to make a decision on all housing recommendations from RHA on Monday, said RHA Senator Matt Verghese.
RHA Senators fiercely debated the resolution during the meeting, but with many of the same arguments the Senate has been weighing throughout the semester: Someone is going to lose, and the RHA must decide who.
“In this time of a housing crisis, some courtesies have to be lost,” RHA Senator Spiro Dimakas said.
The most contentious exchanges came between Verghese, a senior, and the younger Dimakas, with Verghese defending the older student population and Dimakas taking the side of his fellow sophomores.
Verghese was the loudest voice against the bill, arguing that it will damage students’ ability to create a “home.”
“Our pull-in procedure is there because we want you to live with your friends,” Verghese said.
Dimakas responded that desperate times call for desperate measures.
RHA Senator Bixi Zeng added another dimension to the debate, arguing that the pull-in system is unfair to students who do not have friends already in the Commons or Courtyards.
“All [juniors] should get screwed together,” Zeng said.
RHA passes last-minute legislation
The RHA used its last meeting of the semester to vote on five bills, four of which passed.
The RHA passed resolutions to support Dining Services in efforts to curb thefts in the dining halls (efforts which are currently undefined); explore adding a Shuttle-UM route to serve Courtyards on the weekends; increase the advertising and feasibility of barriers for top bunks in the dorms; and to support a meal point donation drive to benefit the Maryland Public Interest Research Group’s Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week.
The lone resolution to fail would have requested the RHA standing committee, the Transportation Advisory Committee, to examine the Purple Line placement.
