Spring is approaching, and you decide to check your email.
The subject of the email is “Room Draw” in all caps with about 12 exclamation points.
Maybe you are feeling excited about preparing your rooming situation for next year. Or perhaps, you are feeling anxious and stressed about your future living situation, and the questions of where you will live and whom that will be with are consuming your mind.
On the Editorial Board, we’ve dealt with mixed experiences regarding room draw. Many students have felt confused or overwhelmed by the room draw process, and a few have endured struggles when attempting to switch residence halls.
The stress and anxiety surrounding room draw that is experienced by many Taylor students is seemingly unnecessary and may be caused by several different factors.
First, the long email students receive about room draw comes across as confusing or complex.
“It was both a lot of information and a little vague,” sophomore Katelyn Bertsche said.
Bertsche’s lack of clarity on the room draw process made it difficult when it came time for her to find a roommate for the following year. She did not have a roommate her freshman year and was left to find one on her own for her sophomore year.
“What was stressful for me was that if I couldn’t find a roommate, I would have had to go into room draw and possibly lose my room,” Bertsche said. “But also I don’t know if that’s how it would have worked because the process is confusing.”
So, how does this whole process go down?
Housing Coordinator Lori Slater summarized the process and what students can expect from it.
“In April every year, we have the squatting process, and that’s where students can choose to keep their own room with a roommate as long as the room is full,” Slater said. “They can request to squat their room, and if they choose to go through (the) room draw then that is the following week after the squatting process.”
Since a room must be “full” in order to be squatted, students without roommates must enter room draw and risk losing their room and having to move off their wing. This can cause stress and furthermore, devastation among Taylor students.
Additionally, the process of moving from one residence hall to another can be challenging for students.
Last year, sophomore Emma Brosious was hoping to switch residence halls and ran into several roadblocks.
“It was a frustrating process trying to navigate how to switch dorms and the whole room draw process,” Brosious said. “It took a lot of effort on my part to take initiative and search for rooming possibilities. It was just difficult, and I felt like I wasn’t getting much assistance or support.”
Brosious is undoubtedly not the only student who has struggled with the process of moving to a new residence hall.
Students who hope to move to a new residence hall with a roommate from a hall other than the one they are moving to are almost guaranteed to not be able to do so.
“The best way for a student to secure a spot in a new residence hall would be to move with someone that already lives in that building and is possibly losing their roommate,” Slater said.
In the future, we believe it would be helpful if students received more clear and detailed information about room draw.
Students would benefit from a clear list of steps or a flow chart containing options for when they do not have a roommate and are hoping to stay on their wing or floor or for when they are hoping to move to a new residence hall.
Regardless, we appreciate the hard work that the Taylor housing staff puts in on a daily basis to ensure the happiness of the student body. No one would have a place to live without their efforts.
Navigating how to find new roommates and new residence halls may just be stressful processes to begin with. But, if Taylor could somehow reduce the stress and anxiety that is caused by these processes, students would be much better off.
The Our View represents the official opinion of the student newspaper on different issues, as determined by a consensus of The Echo Editorial Board members. Readers are welcome to submit their views on these issues in a letter to the editor to echo@taylor.edu
