GW’s housing lottery will remain online, and students will not be able to pick specific rooms, Housing Services announced this week.

Unlike previous years when students were able to choose their exact rooms, Housing Services Director Andrew Sonn said students this year will select buildings and room sizes into the Banner Web system and receive a room assignment. Students will not be able to choose a specific floor, either.

Dean of Students Linda Donnels said programmers are trying to work in a function that will allow students to pick specific “tiers,” which would allow students to narrow their selection to the last two digits in a room number. For example, students would choose a 06 room, but would not pick the floor.

Sonn said this new system is being implemented to make the housing selection process more “streamlined”. He said with more beds and students selecting, this system will make the process less difficult. Rather than a flood of room numbers on the screen, students can choose a more detailed room-type.

After the student with the highest lottery number among his roommates accepts his housing agreement, he will receive a specific room number, which he must accept or reject.

Students have 48 hours to change their mind about the room they accepted by e-mailing Housing Services. RHA President Noel Frame said housing officials have not finalized the options for students who reject their assigned room number.

Roommates who did not use their numbers in the lottery can still turn down the room offered to the person who pulled them in. They can then use their own housing lottery number to select a room during their later time slot.

Students have been receiving selection numbers online for two weeks, and Housing Services could not provide the number of students who have numbers so far.

According to Sonn, 124 rising sophomores have taken advantage of a University exemption from mandatory on-campus housing that begins next year. This is lower than the predicted 800 than the Community Living and Learning Center expected, but students can still file for exemptions for any reason.

Sonn said the Marvin Center computer lab will be reserved for online housing selection Feb. 24 and March 10.

The computer system will offer room amenity descriptions will to give students more details about housing options.

RHA and Housing Services are finalizing a way to differentiate between rooms that would previously have been classified under general headings such as “single” or “quad.”

“Some rooms are measurably different,” Sonn said.

For example, singles in Gutheridge Hall will now be differentiated between singles with microwaves and singles with kitchens.

Over the next week, RHA and Housing Services plan to meet with different hall councils to see which rooms are considered most desirable.

“It’s not specific room selection, which would have been preferred, but we compromised,” Frame said. “Specific room selection is still important to RHA. It is going to be the number one thing on the agenda for the housing committee next year.”

The rates may also change because of the specific classifications. GW may raise the price of either New Hall 04 or 06 quads, which currently have the same yearly rate, if Housing Services decides to classify the rooms separately, Sonn said.

Sonn said Housing Services could change the rates according to different sizes and amenities between the two sets of rooms.

-Russ Rizzo contributed to this report.