Room assignments take place tomorrow

College freshman Cindy Harvey says she never considered herself unlucky, despite having to live in the unrenovated part of the Quadrangle this year. But now, in the wake of last week's Grand Arena housing lottery in which she drew number 701 out of 716, her misfortune seems to have become a trend. Harvey and the 1500 other students who entered the lottery will find out at tomorrow's day-long room selection in English House, which -- if any -- of the 588 available University dormitory rooms will be theirs next semester. Students who signed up for doubles face the least competition because only 217 groups signed up for the 306 available singles, according to Donna Boyko, the manager of Residential Living's assignments and billing office. But Boyko said requests for all other room types exceed the number available, especially for doubles , for which requests outnumber available rooms 269 to 112. For Harvey and her future roommates, the odds are not good that they will wind up with the room they want, a quad. If students find that no more rooms of a particular type are available when officials get to their numbers, the students can ask to be put on the waiting list or claim another type of room. Groups of four, therefore, can split into two groups of two if no more quads are left. According to Boyko, over 200 fewer students signed up for the lottery this year than last, when 1749 students tried their luck. But she said the lower number is due to an increase in the number of students who opted for the Community Living program. Deputy Vice Provost George Koval said earlier this week he hopes more students decide to live in the dorms next year to help end an unusually high dorm vacancy rate. He said in February that a vacancy rate this year that is twice as high as normal created a $700,000 revenue shortfall for Residential Living. Koval added he will not know whether the vacancies will continue until students sign their leases. Harvey, who hopes to be among those penning their signatures tomorrow, said she will be glad when the room selection process ends and life returns to normal. The victim of ridiculing friends chanting "701, 701, 701," Harvey said people she does not even know very well have been expressing their sympathy about the high number. Still, Harvey, who said she may have to look off campus for housing, expressed cautious optimism. "I think things will work out even though they seem pretty bad," she said.

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