Students living on campus next fall will have to wait until April to figure out where they’re living.
The University will process the “majority” of the general housing applications in April instead of February, Associate Dean of Student Administrative Services and senior adviser Danielle Lico said, to help students who haven’t finalized their living situation for the next year.
“This will allow students additional time to clear holds on their accounts, finalize plans for study abroad and determine if they will need on-campus housing for the upcoming year,” Lico said in an email.
Lico said South Hall and affinity housing assignments will be released “slightly earlier” than general housing assignments so that seniors who are not assigned to live in South Hall can decide whether or not they want to apply for other on-campus housing.
Varun Chandorkar, a sophomore and the Guthridge Hall treasurer in the Residence Hall Association, was part of a small committee that met with Director of GW Housing Programs Seth Weinshel to tackle housing issues this year.
“The most effective, short-term way to improve housing was to move back housing a few months to accommodate all the people who were transferring or dropping out, going abroad, without knowing that ahead of time,” Chandorkar said. “It saves a lot of spots for kids because there’s only so many beds.”
Next academic year, students will be required to live on campus through their junior year. The new requirement will bring in $2.8 million to GW each year, but may make it more difficult for seniors to find housing on campus, Residence Hall Association President Mike Massaroli said.
“With all juniors being essentially required to live on campus next year, other than South Hall and Greek housing, seniors will probably not be able to live on campus,” Massaroli said. “Most seniors that would request a place like Shenkman will probably get rejected and have to live off campus. So it could actually be an issue for some of those people.”
District House, the $130 million residence hall that will add 300 beds for sophomores and juniors to the Foggy Bottom Campus, is expected to be completed in the fall. At the same time, the lease on City Hall will expire, which currently houses 360 residents.
About 730 juniors and seniors live in Shenkman Hall. Other options for third- and fourth-year students in Foggy Bottom are The Dakota and Mitchell Hall, all of which Massaroli said will largely house juniors next year.
Massaroli said over the summer, GW’s housing office struggled to house at least 10 freshmen, which he said was resolved in part by converting some double-occupancy rooms to triple-occupancies in International House.
“I know this year they had a big issue, once they’d admitted more freshmen, looking for places to put them. That’s how they ended up with the freshmen floor in International House,” he said. “As long as people know where they’re living before the end of the year, I think it’ll be okay.”
