As a member of the Welcome Week committee, Bobbie Harada, Arts & Sciences sophomore, said she loved telling students and families why she came to Creighton.
“Since Creighton didn’t have my particular major, I should have transferred, but it’s the feeling of community that kept me here,” she said. “But now I feel like that community kind of kicked me out.”
Harada, along with other sophomores who tried to reserve on-campus housing for next fall, were denied during the 2008 Apartment Living Lottery Process, also referred to as E-Lottery.
As a result, Harada and her suitemates will be living off campus.
“I wanted to live on campus because it’s safer, but now I don’t have a choice.”
E-mails from different Residence Life employees stated things like, “We hope you find this to be a fun and exciting process as you sign up for next year’s apartment,” and officials rescheduled the E-Lottery from March 11 to March 18.
Still, Harada filled out all the necessary paper work, paid a $75 deposit, received her PIN and waited until her scheduled time to pick out a residence hall and room.
“I figured since the lottery started at 5 [p.m.] and my lottery time was 5:50, that I could pick practically any room I wanted,” she said.
When she logged on, though, a message appeared on the screen telling her the halls were already full.
“I thought it was a glitch or something,” she said. “I refreshed my page, started all over, E-mailed residence life, everything.”
Neither her nor her suitemates got personal responses from anyone in Residence Life, so they started looking for housing off-campus, which concerned their parents about safety.
“I just don’t think Residence Life handled it right,” she said. “Why didn’t anyone notify us that we might not get a room?”
Residence Life Director Richard Rossi said they are still working on the lottery for the fall, and he couldn’t comment until things were sorted out.
In a standardized mass E-mail from Jacqueline Lawrence, Housing Assignments coordinator, she said to students who inquired about not having a place to live on campus,
“Currently, all apartments in Davis Square and Opus Hall have been leased for the upcoming year.”
Yesterday, we surveyed those students, who requested lottery numbers for the Davis/Opus lottery but did not receive an apartment, to determine if they continue to desire living on campus in other residence halls if available, or to be placed on a wait list for an individual (not apartment) vacancies that may occur in Opus and Davis, or if they intend to move off campus.”
We will have a better understanding by the middle of next week as to what the interest level to live on campus is and at that time, we will be in touch with students who were on our lottery list about what options may be available.”
Please understand that the remaining on-campus housing is very limited and that while we will do our best to assist those juniors and seniors wishing to live on campus, we cannot guarantee it.”
Kelsey Tengan, Arts & Sciences sophomore, said he and all his suitemates found a house earlier this week after being told that all the rooms in Opus and Davis Square were taken. His registration time was 6 p.m., and it was already full.
“It just makes things difficult,” Tengan said. “We are all from Hawaii and our parents wanted us to live on campus so we wouldn’t have to worry about transportation or any of that. Now I’m probably going to have to get a car if I want to get around in the winter.”