Hi Everyone!

Welcome back - we hope you all had a relaxing break!

It’s hard to believe it, but it is almost time to think about Room Picks 2009.  In the next few weeks we will be updating our website with information about the process and the housing options that will be available.  The full website will be up in late January.  In the meantime, please keep an eye out for emails from Housing Accommodations with information about Room Picks.

We will also be hosting information sessions in late January and early February.  The full schedule will be available soon.  We encourage you to attend an info session.  This process can appear complicated, and we want to make sure everyone is working with accurate information as you make your plans.

Good luck this term!

We have received a handful of inquiries about Spring reassignments.  We’re going to try to work out a small shuffle amongst the people who are not happy with their initial outcomes.  We will be utilizing any spaces that have opened up since the main round of assignments.

If you are interested in pursuing a reassignment, you can submit your request here.  We will review requests next week (Dec 8-12), so please get your info in ASAP.  There’s no guarantee that space will be available within your preferences, but we will try to meet as many requests as possible.

Please note that the biggest factor in whether a student is moved at this point in the process will be their willingness to have a random roommate.  There are various spaces available on West and Central in partially filled rooms, so students who are interested in moving and willing to fill one of these vacancies have the highest likelihood of being reassigned.

Please contact us if you have any questions!

Hi Everyone!

We’re happy to report that the majority of Spring assignments have been completed. Emails will be going out in the next few hours.

If you do not receive an email, we may still be processing your request - there are a handful of preferred roommate situations that are in limbo until another student cancels their housing, and we have some late applicants who have not yet been placed. We appreciate your patience.

There were over 500 new applications for housing, over 100 requests for reassignment, and about 100 cancellations. What this boils down to is that we were able to meet most, but not all requests for specific locations. The vast majority of students returning from abroad preferenced Few as their first choice - there wasn’t room for everyone, so some students were placed in other available locations. We were able to meet most, but not all, requests for singles.

Also, there is still space in Few in male triples. If there are any male students who wish to relocate to Few, you may request to do so - be sure to indicate that you are interested in a triple in Few on your reassignment form. We will process these requests over the next few weeks.

***The new floor plans for Few are NOT available online.  Anything you are seeing around online is an old floor plan.  Room numbers and sizes are likely to have changed. Please do not email us asking for the layout or square footage of your room.  This information is not available.  We will post floor plans and other building information as soon as possible. Thank you for your cooperation.***
Move-in and move-out information is also now on our website.

We will be posting information about what to expect in the new Few shortly - check back soon!

It’s a banner day in the Housing Accommodations office!  We finally got it set up so that the application software will send an email confirmation to the student submitting the request.  So, from this point forward, when you submit any of the Spring 2009 Housing forms (applications, cancellations, reassignment, and vacancy requests, etc.) you should get an email with the contents of your application.  If you applied prior to now, you won’t have gotten an email - you can always contact us if you want to confirm we got your request.
Don’t worry if some of it doesn’t make sense to you (for example, class years show up as letters) - we simplify/code a lot of the data you input.  Definitely make sure that your preferences, roommate information, etc are accurate.

It seems to be the question on everyone’s minds - who will get to live in Few when it reopens?

As is usually our practice with Spring housing, the priority in the process goes to returning students, within the usual constraints of seniority and availability.  Here’s what we anticipate happening:

Available space will include:

• ~400+ beds in Few, including singles, doubles, and triples
• ~150-200 beds elsewhere on campus (from current vacancies and from students canceling their Spring housing to graduate or go abroad)

Assignment process will be:

• Place students returning from abroad/leave who have a high preference to be in Few.  This will include pulling in preferred roommates who currently live elsewhere on-campus.
• Review reassignment requests from students who are currently elsewhere on-campus who want to move into Few.  Get a sense of the types of spaces they will open up if they move.
• Review the requests from the students returning from abroad/leave who wanted locations other then Few.
• Using seniority and a random lottery, work to move and place the remaining students in a manner that “maximizes happiness.”

Basically, if moving someone from Craven to Few results in four people getting what they want, as opposed to just placing someone in Few meaning that no one gets what they want, we’ll go with the former.  Our hope is that the flexibility of having an empty quad at the start of this process will result in the majority of students being placed in a way that meets their preferences.  Of course, there is no way to predict what spaces will open as students cancel, and there’s no way to predict what housing students returning to campus will prefer - when we have a better sense of that (November), we’ll post another update!

• Spring Housing applications (for assignment, reassignment, getting your preferred roommate, etc) will be available at the end of September.
• Few Quad is proceeding on-schedule.
• The majority of students who are currently abroad or on Leave and who return for Spring will be assigned to Few Quad.  There will also be various openings in other quads and on Central Campus as students who are going abroad for Spring cancel their housing.
• All students should plan to live on-campus for Spring 2009 - we anticipate having enough on-campus housing for all returning students.  We do not anticipate needing to do an off-campus lottery (remember, the off-campus lottery only happens if there are more students who need housing than there are bedspaces available).  We will keep students updated if the status of the lottery changes.

Hi Everyone,

We can’t believe move-in is just around the corner.  Here are some tips for staying green and keeping campus clean during move-in:

• Reduce, reuse, and recycle!
• Leave trash at the store - ask them to keep shoe boxes, tubes from carpet rolls, and excess packing materials.
• Save reusable crates, bags, and boxes for move-out.
• Pack smart - remove appliances from boxes before arrival.  Pack breakable items in clothing/towels instead of bubblewrap.
• Empty and flatten old cardboard boxes - recycle them!
• Recycle various items with Duke Recycles (toner cartridges, batteries, cell phones, computers, furniture, etc)

Get ready for move-in by checking out the list of recycling locations.

Are done!

Emails just went out to people who were assigned.  If you didn’t hear from us yet, it means we either weren’t able to reassign you or there is a hold-up.  We’ll be in touch tomorrow to explain why you weren’t reassigned.

We are still accepting applications for ASSIGNMENT only.  There is a reassignment freeze now until September 15.

Thanks to everyone for your patience.  Please let us know if you have questions.