Students Call For Whitman Housing Lottery Revamp
April 7, 2019
In late January, the Whitman Housing Lottery took place. Anticipation took over sophomore students who were in the midst of planning their living situation for the next two years. Many decisions must be made regarding roommates, location and size. There is also an interesting student housing debacle regarding whether the chosen house should be owned by Whitman or by an outside rental company. Which one is more beneficial to students?
Laura Nix, Whitman’s Assistant Controller, shares how Whitman houses compare similarly to the price of non-Whitman houses.
“From what we have seen from looking at listservs and talking with local real estate offices, we are right in the ballpark with our $400-525 amount (rent for the individual student). We don’t believe we are less than the community rentals,” Nix said.
The overall rent cost is similar across rental companies, but the individual expenses can decrease if students decide to add an additional roommate to split the cost.
Off-campus housing can either be Whitman owned or non-Whitman owned. According to Assistant Controller Nix, the price does not greatly differ between the two options.
Given the similarity in prices across Whitman owned and non-Whitman owned properties, students must decide which side to rent from.
According to Peter Harvey, Chief Financial Officer, the college’s rentals are more ideal for students.
“We do think that students believe that we are really good landlords and that we are responsive. If there is a problem we take care of it. In general, we are pretty easy to work with,” Harvey said.
As Harvey described, students tend to want to rent Whitman owned properties before using an outside rental company.
However, the high demand for Whitman-owned living space becomes a problem when the college’s housing inventory falls short.
Laura Nix describes the popularity of the college’s housing. Each year, over the past 10 years, all of the units in the off campus program are rented out.
“We do have a larger number of students who are wanting housing from us that we don’t have available. Unfortunately, we have limited inventory. We have 47 properties that house about 90-100 students. We can’t take care of everyone at this point,” Nix said.
Harvey added to Nix, noting that some off-campus housing was lost in the construction of our new buildings.
“We should remember we lost some houses when we built Cleveland and Stanton, but we also added a bunch of apartments at Tamarac that used to be part of the sophomore housing. There are trade-offs. This has been very successful so far,” Harvey said.
To get a Whitman-owned house, sophomore students must participate in a lottery. For the last three to four years, the advertisement of the student housing lottery began in December. Prior to that, the lottery did not occur until Spring Break. According to Nix, student concerns were heard and resulted in this change.
“We moved the lottery up after hearing from students about the need to obtain housing a little bit earlier,” Nix said.
After students fill out the necessary paperwork for this lottery, Cindy Russell takes this information and randomly draws the lottery winners. The winners will get their first choice in housing. Students also have two backup options available.
“It is objective and it is unbiased. I think [the lottery] is as fair as it can be. If we went to a first come first apply situation, there may be unfair opportunities for students to obtain those properties before others. It wouldn’t be an equal playing field,” Nix said.
Sophomore student Quinne Woolley has experienced what it is like when the lottery does not work in her favor. Woolley explains the stress that comes when denied from the college’s housing.
“I was worried when I found out I did not get my choice in off campus housing. I ended up renting from an outside property management company. But in the moment, I had no clue what to do and how I was going to get a house,” Woolley said.
Woolley started contacting housing coordinators last October, expressing her interest in a Whitman owned house. Woolley believes having the lottery earlier in the year would enable students to get more time to plan for unexpected events.
“The way the Whitman housing lottery is advertised implies that everyone should be able to get a house. I would have preferred if they did the lottery in the fall because if you don’t get a house, you have a lot more time to find a different one,” Woolley said.
Whitman’s faculty and staff are looking towards ways to improve the student housing experience.
“One of Kathy Murrays Announcement of Strategic Priorities, is to increase the housing owned by the college. With a long term goal being to provide an opportunity for all students to live in Whitman owned housing. We are doing master planning of how to potentially accomplish that in the future. It will likely include building some new apartment style facilities, as well as buying more rental properties,” Harvey said.
Nix shares her advice for students who are thinking of applying for off campus houses.
“I would suggest starting early. We don’t start talking about Whitman owned housing until December. Prior to that individuals that are sophomores looking for the following year, decide what you want when you’re moving off campus. Close to campus, privacy, what roommates, budget. Make those decisions first before you go out and start looking. Do as much homework beforehand as you can, research to make sure your values will be addressed in your house. That will help you narrow the housing search,” Nix said.
