Arena registration sees increase

More than 200 red and blue balloons covered the campus yesterday proclaiming, "Room selection today -- Residential Living: Right in the Heart of Campus." Monday marked the beginning of the arena registration process, which continued through yesterday afternoon in the upper lobby of High Rise North. "The balloons are just a way to remind students that this is the day," Residential Living Director Gigi Simeone said. "Students have a lot of information that they are dealing with? and when the day comes, this is a colorful way to let students know to come to High Rise North and sign up." In total, 734 students applied for the arena process, according to Supervisor and Freshman Assignments Counselor for Residential Living Doris Stone. This breaks down to 290 singles, 108 doubles, 42 triples and 36 quads. Last year, only 622 students applied for arena. Simeone explained that in the arena process, students sign up in groups and are randomly assigned a lottery number that determines their place in line. Associate Director for Occupancy Administration Ellie Rupsis said that the arena process has changed this year. "The arena is a lottery to get spaces in the high rises and graduate towers," she said, explaining that in previous years, the arena process has included all on-campus housing. "This was changed to make it easier for students," she said. "There are more spaces available than demand for upper-class students in the Quad, so why make people go through a lottery process?" The other change this year is that the lottery is based on class priority, Rupsis said. Rising juniors and seniors will receive priority over the rising sophomores. A senior living with a senior gets first priority, she explained. "The whole ideas is to get upperclassmen to stay on campus," Rupsis added. Students signing up for arena said they had many reasons for choosing on-campus living. "I didn't want to go through the hassles of living off campus and wanted to stay close to my classes," said Engineering freshman Pablo Lafuente. And many students agreed that the new policy was a positive one. College junior Shweta Parmar said students deserved a more user-friendly system. "We've been doing things for Penn and it's about time Residential Living does something for us," she said. College sophomore Dave Sebag said he agreed. "I think it's good," he said. "I guess when I'm a senior it will be a lot better, but they've paid their dues." Students living on campus will receive their arena tickets the week of March 18 in their mail boxes. Off-campus students can pick their tickets up in the assignments office. Arena will be held March 23 in McClelland Hall from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.