The University will accommodate 73 percent of rising juniors who are eligible for housing by the end of the week, Director of Media Relations Gretchen King said.
“This happens every year,” King said. “There is a very scientific model for filling the available housing. Though this may be unsettling to those who are on the waiting list, they will get housed.”
As of last Friday’s 5:30 p.m. deadline, 466 students were placed on the guaranteed waiting list. By Wednesday that number dropped to 366, King said.
“It is important to have a waiting list,” said Linda Donnells, dean of students. “If we didn’t have a waiting list we would have a vacancy problem.”
GW loses money when the University has vacancies in its residence halls, causing more expensive housing costs, Donnells said.
Donnells said allocating student numbers for housing is a scientific process involving statistical models based on the experiences of past years.
“Every year this happens,” she said. “There are more people on the waiting list this year, however, we also have more properties to work with, and there are more properties coming into the system.”
The University is renovating and converting several facilities to house rising juniors who were turned away from the housing lottery March 31. GW continues to take over rooms in the 2109 F St. apartment complex to offer to students on the waiting list. A townhouse at 607 21st St. is also another housing option, Donnells said
GW’s campus plan, which the BZA finalized last month, requires the University to house all freshmen and sophomores on campus by 2002, a provision GW offered during negotiations. Changes to housing selection this year give rising sophomores first pick.
To deal with the influx on the waiting list, rising sophomores can pick rooms in the Columbia Plaza through GW.
The University announced this year that it will offer Francis Scott Key Hall as a residence hall for first-year law students.
“We have one of the best law schools in the nation,” King said. “In order to attract the best students we need to keep pace with other universities who offer similar housing options.”
King said the University would house undergraduates in FSK if the undergraduate housing shortage reaches a critical point. King said the FSK plan is only a remote contingency plan, and all undergraduates who signed up for housing on campus will receive a room in Foggy Bottom.
“We have always had a waiting list, and we have always been able to accommodate the waitlist,” Donnells said. “It is part of the process.”
