Housing arena held Saturday

Hundreds of students waited in front of McClelland Hall in the Quadrangle early Saturday morning for Residential Living's arena, anxious to learn where they would be living for the coming year. Beginning at 9 a.m., students began lining up outside the hall according to their lottery numbers, which ranged from one to 513. Next year's seniors entered McClelland first, due to a new policy allocating the highest lottery numbers to upperclassmen. By 1:30 p.m., when the arena process was completed, 79 singles, 80 doubles, 13 triples and 21 quads were selected, according to Residential Living Supervisor Doris Stone. College junior Julie Gayle was the lucky recipient of lottery number one. "I got a single in High Rise South, which is exactly what I wanted," she said. "The people at the desk were so excited that number one was here." But approximately 30 of the first hundred lottery numbers did not show up, according to the room selection time table. "It shocked me to see that people gave up this great opportunity to have fantastic living on campus," said arena volunteer Mark Ford, a College sophomore. For the first time, all seven college houses were also present at arena in order to provide dissatisfied students an alternative living options. "The Living and Learning programs have all the high rise room types that students are looking for," said Ellie Rupsis, associate director of Residential Living. And Cathleen Riddley, administrative fellow for Van Pelt College House, said she agreed. "We explained [to interested students] what kind of house we are and our sense of community," she said. "We're not just a place to put your shoes under the bed, but a place where you build a community," she added. Seven students signed up for the house during arena, Riddley said. Rupsis said she was very happy with how the day proceeded. But she added that she plans to make several changes in the future. "We need to make the lines go a little faster," she said. "Very early in the morning, there was congestion in the singles lines since seniors get priority, and later on in the doubles line because of sophomores." Rupsis said that so far she has received positive feedback on giving upperclassmen priority in arena and plans to continue this in the future. There are still rooms available in the Quad, the college houses and doubles in the high rises without kitchens, according to Rupsis.