When Flynn and Morrison halls filled up, St. Thomas students who did not want to live in “freshman dorms” turned to social media to express frustration and find housing solutions for next year.

“Looks like we’re all living on the streets next year,” and, “I mean, I saved my boxes from care packages if anyone wants to post up on Summit,” were among St. Thomas students’ comments on a Facebook thread created to address housing issues. Their concerns sparked a brainstorm of potential improvements to the sophomore housing process.

Freshman Residential Senator Sarah Schuler initiated the Facebook post urging students from her class to contact her if they had any questions about housing. She was quickly bombarded with feedback from people concerned they would not have a place to live.

“There is definitely a sophomore housing problem,” Schuler said. “Just because there’s not a lot of options that aren’t freshmen dorms or the upperclassmen dorms that (incoming sophomores) can’t get into because they don’t have enough credits.”

On-campus housing options students typically consider are Flynn and Morrison halls and traditional halls such as Dowling or Brady. Registration takes place over a period of three days; for the first two days, students register in an order based on the number of credits they have. On the third day, students register in an order based on a lottery process. Typically, the third day is when all rising sophomores register. By this time, they can sign up for whichever apartments and dorms are still available, as well as sophomore experience apartments.

Freshman Madeline Schuster said these different determining factors frustrated her last year. She was allowed to register earlier than most freshmen because she had enough credits to be in sophomore standing. However, she wanted to wait to apply for the sophomore experience apartments. Schuster said when she went back to register on the third day she was re-assigned a lottery time slot that was too late to get a spot in the apartments.

“I don’t really understand why the system of selection is credits for two days and lottery for one day,” Schuster said. “I think it should be all based on credits, or they should assign all times based on lottery according to seniors select first and the juniors and sophomores and then freshmen.”

Director of Residence Life Aaron Macke defended this system and said allowing students with the most credits to register first encourages juniors and seniors to live on campus and gives adequate housing options to the upperclassmen. Although freshmen who have sophomore standing are able register earlier than most of their classmates, the lottery system gives all freshmen an equal chance to register for their desired housing.

“We can’t create a process that gives all 2,500 people maximum flexibility and freedom,” Macke said. “At some point everyone has to make a choice: Do I take the guaranteed, or roll the dice for something that I think might be a little bit nicer?”

Although sophomores and upperclassmen can live in traditional dorms, Schuler said that many students don’t want to live in a “freshman” dorm beyond their first year.

Schuler said giving returning students tours of a traditional dorm might improve the situation.

“I think that showing what a single in Dowling might look like might appeal to students more than going into Flynn and Morrison thinking, I’m getting into this for sure,” she said. “Chances are you’re not going to get into a Morrison or Flynn apartment as a sophomore.”

Schuler has brought other ideas to Macke and Residence Life, including the idea of creating a flowchart to help students figure out alternate housing options if one plan falls through. Macke said Residence Life always welcomes feedback from students and is planning to adjust the way the housing process is communicated to incoming sophomores.

Margaret Galush can be reached at galu4637@stthomas.edu.