Housing process stressful

Sara Mettlen
Staff Writer
April 29, 2004, Page 3

The little pink piece of paper looks harmless enough, but it holds a great amount of power.
The housing process can be a smooth transition into new living quarters or a trail of tears and paperwork leading you right back to where you started.
"It [the housing process] is a little more stressful than what I thought it would be," freshman Kristen Welch said.
Welch said that some aspects of the process, particularly the points system and applying for Hansen Hall, were confusing.
Junior Sarah Newton said students views of the housing process depends on where they are trying to live and if they know who their roommates are going to be.
Newton said that the worst part of the process is not getting in where you apply, whether that be not getting a suite in Hansen or not getting a particular room in Frees that you wanted.
Most agree that working with other students to form groups for suites and quads is the most frustrating part of the process.
Sophomore Derick Smith agrees that finding a roommate is stressful, but thinks needing a backup plan if your first choice does not work out only adds to the difficulty of the process.
"It's a tedious process that just has to be done," Smith said.
Kristina Pajeda, Resident Director of Sheldon Hall, coordinated housing for the first time this year. She said one major difference was that everyone had to be pre-registered for next year before they could go through housing. This pushed the date for housing back a few weeks.
"There has been some competition, but no problems," Pajeda said. She stressed that housing is not supposed to be a hassle, and the Residence Life staff is willing to listen to students who want to voice their concerns.
"Students need to, if they feel there are problems or better ways to do things, let us [the Residence Life staff] know because we're up for suggestions," Pajeda said.
Pajeda said that a common mistake made by students on housing forms this year was problems with alternates. Students can only be alternates for one group and to be an alternate your housing preference must be traditional housing.
Although every year is different, and there is no way to predict what people will want from one year to the next, Pajeda said the staff tries to make the process as easy and hassle-free as possible.

Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down 04/22/04

• Thumbs up to the women’s tennis team for beating Morningside 6-3.
• Thumbs up to bringing a magician to campus.
• Thumbs up to Mitch Vernon for being GPAC and NAIA Region IV player of the week.

• Thumbs down to poor attendance at Sarah Weddington’s speech. She deserved a bigger audience.
• Thumbs down to a limited number of free tickets for the magician.
• Thumbs down to the hassle of housing

Students prepare for housing process

Jo Teeters
Managing Editor
April 1, 2004, Page 1

Housing preferencing for the 2004-2005 school year begins April 12.
Preferencing is the process by which current students, who have pre-registered for the 2004 fall semester, can request a desired room and roommate for the upcoming academic year. Students use their lottery numbers, randomly assigned according to class rank, to bid on the rooms they want.
Lottery numbers are posted in Tiger Inn and are available at tiger.doane.edu.
All full-time students are required to live on campus. Doane students have several options for on-campus housing.
Doane has three traditional residence halls. Frees is a co-ed hall, while Sheldon is all female and Smith is all male.
Students who want to preference these halls must fill out a housing confirmation sheet, which is available in the Residence Life Office, and attend the appropriate preferencing sessions in Tiger Inn.
The Quads (Burrage and Colonial) are another option for students. Each Quad is comprised of four two-person bedrooms that share a bathroom and living area.
Students who want to preference the Quads must complete the following requirements:

• Pick up a housing form.
• Select a spokesperson for the group of students that are preferencing the Quad.
• Complete a Quad Priority Preferencing sheet for the group. The sheet is available in the Residence Life Office.
• Obtain signed housing confirmation forms for each Quad member.
• Complete and sign a “Memorandum of Understanding” form.

Doane also provides Alternative Housing with Fairchild and Faculty apartments. Fairchild has two and three bedroom apartments with living rooms, kitchens, bathrooms and air-conditioning. It is located on the corner of Boswell and East 4th Street.
Faculty contains three two-bedroom apartments with living rooms, kitchens and bathrooms. It is located on East 4th Street, adjacent to Fairchild.
In order to live in Alternative Housing, students must submit a written proposal and Alternative Housing contract to Residence Life. The proposal must include the name of each student seeking Alternative Housing, where they want to live, why they want to live there and each student’s signature.
The final housing option is Hansen Hall. Hansen has 12-, nine-, eight-, seven-, six- and four-person suites with a living room and bathroom in each.
Students who want to live in Hansen must complete the following requirements:

• Pick up a housing form.
• Choose a spokesperson to collect lottery points, names and social security numbers of all prospective suite members.
• Print off a copy of your leadership transcript.
• Find alternates willing to move into the suite if a space opens up.

For more information on housing, visit tiger.doane.edu/StudentResources/Res%20Life%20pac/welcome_to_doane_college_residen.htm or call Russ Hewitt, director of Residence Life, at 8111 or Residence Director Kristina Pajeda at 8662.