This past week has been interesting when it comes to my school changing policies. This semester they implemented automatic refunding for those students who have extra money from scholarships and loans with the school. This year they also changed the housing assignment process from a random lottery to a first come - first serve basis. I'm fine with this process, it's the other part of the new system that doesn't make sense.
They started this new process on last Teusday, on the first of April. Here's the funny part: only a few students knew about this. Apparently the housing department wanted to use "word of mouth" to spread the news about the new process, when it starts, and how much the doposits are. I found out everything at the end of the first day's assignment and into the next day when I actually got my assignment. They raised the amount of the deposit, changed the system, and started the process without giving any kind of notice to the students.
Last year, there were signs telling us about housing for next year posted all over the school. They placed flyers in the mailboxes and posted announcements on the school's netowrk. This year there was nothing. No flyers are even posted in the housing department. They don't even mention the information unless someone happened to ask about how housing is going this year.
Fortunately for me, I did find out everything in the nick of time and because demand for the new morehouse suites opening next year was high, I still ended up with my first choice. The suites require a larger deposit payment. However, "word of mouth" is not a good system to deliver information to the students. It's not even a system! The administration, or at least the housing department, really dropped the ball on this one. Maybe they got lazy and didn't feel like puttin in the effort to properly inform the student body. I sincerely hope that they don't practice this in the future. Until next time, stay tuned and stay safe!
Written 4/6/2003 by Chris Taylor