By Laurie Babinski
Editor in Chief
Vaulted ceilings, ocean views and quick access to the caf.
At one time, students simply worried about where on the picturesque Malibu campus they would sling their stuff for the coming year.
Now they’re just worried about whether they can live on campus at all.
Due to increasing enrollment and greater upperclass interest in living on campus, students face a housing jam that may leave juniors and seniors out in the cold.
“We’re in a very difficult situation,” said Jim Brock, associate dean of students and director of Residential Life. According to Brock, the number of expected new students, including freshmen and transfers will reach 825 for the 2002-03 school year, up significantly from previous years.
While Admissions was unable to provide enrollment statistics for the upcoming year, the increase from 611 students admitted in 2001 to the 825 expected in 2002 sent the ball rolling.
During the 2001-02 school year, only seven or eight residence halls were set aside specifically for freshmen and transfers. The rest were halls that combined freshmen and returning students.
This year, Residential Services Manager Jesse McCauley expects 15 of the 17 halls to be reserved for newly admitted students, while two other halls will be reserved exclusively for non-freshmen.
Because freshmen and sophomores are required to stay on campus, RLO developed a new policy that prohibits students currently living in the dorms from keeping their rooms.
Towers and apartments residents are still allowed to keep their current rooms.
In a chain reaction, more sophomores will be forced to Towers, and those with more than 60 units to apartments, ultimately limiting the amount of housing available to upperclassmen.
Students were made aware of the new policies when RLO sent out its fall registration bulletin via Pepperdine e-mail March 5, which exp-lained the shortage and outlined new room registration procedures.
“We expect a high demand for housing due to the large number of new students that are expected for the fall of 2002,” the e-mail said. “Highest priority for on-campus housing is given to freshmen and sophomores because these students are required to live on campus.
Second priority for housing is given to returning full-time, upper-division undergraduate students.
If you wish to live on campus you should reserve your current (Towers or apartment) room and not try to move to a different apartment or tower space.”
This change is a significant diversion from last year’s policy, which allowed freshmen first crack at rooms, followed by seniors, juniors and sophomores.
Some, however, feel slighted by the change.
“I’m a junior by years and senior by credits,” Ashley Holmes said. “I’m so bitter.”
Holmes, like other members of the class of 2003 who arrived with additional units, have found themselves without housing because of the change in policy.
Because of her units, Holmes was technically a junior last year with one of the last appointments, and ended up in the dorms.
This year, because she is unable to keep her dorm room and has one of the last appointments again because of her extra units as a senior, she faces the very real possibility of being forced off campus.
RLO representatives acknowledge the flaws in their system.
“It’s not something that was on the forefront of our mind,” McCauley said. “I was an unfortunate coincidence. We really are trying to do what’s best for residents.”
However, they also know that it is impossible to please everyone.
“This seemed like the best way to go about stabilizing the numbers,” Brock said. “We have more juniors on campus than seniors, so it makes more sense for them to be housed first.”
While Brock and McCauley are unable to estimate how many students will be left without rooms, they assure students that RLO is willing to work with them in finding housing both on campus and off.
RLO has retained the right for Towers and apartment residents to keep their current rooms, and also allowed students to “pull” other students into their housing.
If all requests are mutual, students who live in apartments may request that their friends, who may be in a housing bind, forgo their appointments in exchange for the opportunity to move into the apartment before appointments even begin.
The RLO staff has also made it easier for sophomores to officially file for an off-campus housing exemption,allowing them to live off campus despite the on campus requirement.
“We’re looking at numbers instead of individual reasons,” Brock said. “It may be we’ll approve all of them.
“The best thing students can do right now it to play by the rules,” Brock continued. “We’re looking to the future to create consistency. It’s a larger picture issue.”
McCauley agreed. “More than anything, I think students are confused,” he said.
McCauley urges students to visit the Residential Life Office Web site at www.pepperdine.edu/rlo.
He is currently enhancing the site to be more useful to students by posting frequently asked questions. In the future, however, the site will link students to off-campus housing sites and even help students to know what type of housing is filled before they go into their appointments.
Housing may even soon be as simple as registration via PepXpress instead of the current system of registration in person.
However, no matter what the method, Brock promises that RLO will continue to reevaluate their housing needs and policies each year to best serve the student body.
“We’ve approached all this trying to be as proactive as we can,” Brock said.
And while RLO hasn’t yet resorted to lining up the student body in Alumni Park and, at the shot of a gun, letting them dash for their apartments, more radical changes could be in store in the future if they prove beneficial.
Point-system housing and lottery systems have both been tossed around, but Brock is convinced that the current way is still the most effective.
Contact RLO
• RLO urges students to check their Pepperdine e-mail accounts for updates.
• Questions can be e-mailed to rlo@pepperdine.edu or answered in person in the HAWC. The staff will answer e-mails as quickly as possible.
• Students seeking housing offcampus should log on to www.housingoncampus.com, a Web site that the university has been working with. For a small fee, students can view available housing with one-stop ease.
March 14, 2002