On the evening of Monday, Feb. 10, students who will return next year gathered in the Church-Chapel fellowship hall for a housing meeting led by the Residence Life team. The purpose of the meeting was to inform students of changes being made to the housing application process for the upcoming year. 

Several significant changes were introduced, beginning with the housing placement fee required from students upon application, which is now a $20 non-refundable deposit. This payment will be the same across all housing options: Intentional Living Communities, Octavio Romero Student Apartments, Kratz and Yoder Residence Halls and now the first floor of Miller, which will be open as a men’s floor next year. The deposit has been lowered drastically compared to previous years. Last year, the deposit for residence halls was $50, and for the apartments and ILCs it was $75 — which was lowered even further from the previous $200. 

Secondly, the online platform where students will submit their applications will now happen through MyGC, as opposed to the previously used Google Form. 

Housing applications opened at noon on Feb. 12 for those hoping for an ILC and noon on Feb. 13 for all students. There is also a separate application that opens on Feb. 13 for roommate selection for students not applying to an ILC.  

Students hoping to live in ILCs should pick a “point person” to fill out the application, which remains a Google Form. For the residence halls, the previous lottery system has been discarded and instead students will receive an email for a timeslot when they can select a room, rather than the previous ticket method.

A central goal behind these changes is to increase efficiency and inform students of their placements as soon as possible. The Res Life Team hopes to avoid the stress from years past when students were waitlisted for apartments and were not informed with enough time to find an easy solution. 

Lindsey Graber, a junior

English major, recalls the

difficulty of housing last year, saying she and her roommates

were denied from the apartments and “formed a group in the aftermath,” to live in an ILC. While they were able to find a good group, this was still a stressful process due to the poor timing. Graber is optimistic however, “I think it’ll be easier … people won’t have to wait as long to find out if they got housing or not,” she said. Graber also pointed out that this system is beneficial for seniors applying to live with juniors, as their group will be prioritized above a group of all juniors, which was previously not the case. In addition, this system will hopefully bring slightly less work for the Res Life Staff.

Chandler Buchfeller, Director of Residence Life and housing, said that while the capacity of the apartments cannot be changed, “We’re hoping that at the very least … there won’t be this waiting time between when students become eligible for placement and then get [their placement] information.” 

Students will be able to log onto MyGC and select rooms as they open up, rather than waiting for the Res Life Staff. Buchfeller encourages students to reach out if they encounter any difficulties with the new system, saying, “If we don’t know what the students are running up against it, we can’t make the adjustment.”