ResLife may require $300 housing deposit

By: Lidia Ryan

Posted: 11/20/08

ResLife is considering reinstalling a $300 housing deposit fee for students who opt for student housing next academic year as a way of anticipating how many people will remain on campus, according to Director of Housing Services Pamela Schipani.

The idea has not been approved yet but has been put in the parent newsletter in order to alert students and their parents to the possible change in policy. If the deposit policy is implemented, students will receive a bill for $300 in the mail sometime after they sign up for housing, Schipani said. The money would not be an additional cost, but rather an upfront payment of students' room and board fee.

The deposit would hopefully reduce the need for a lottery by eliminating the problem of students signing up for housing only to change their minds at the last minute, Schipani said. The housing deposit was part of past university policy until it was discontinued in 2004.

Ally DaSilva, a 5th-semester accounting major, thinks it would be a good idea to have a deposit.

"It would be a good way to determine who really wants to be on campus," DaSilva said. "I feel like maybe I would have gotten better housing these past three years if there had been one all along."

DaSilva will not be affected by the deposit, however, because she is moving off campus next year in order to live with all her friends.

UConn's housing policy is "a bad situation for seniors because by the time you figure out if you got housing, it's too late to put a deposit down on an apartment," DaSilva said. "You have to pick before you know."

Housing services has already determined that a target number of 3,360 freshmen will be given housing next year and around 550 transfer students will be guaranteed housing as well, Schipani said. All freshmen who apply for housing on time are guaranteed housing, and the enrollment management staff determines how many transfer students will get housing.

Students who have lived on campus for five semesters are not guaranteed future university housing and are thrown into a lottery system. This year, housing services distributed 2,272 lottery numbers to students who have been living on campus for more than five semesters. This is a decrease from last year when 2,305 lottery numbers were distributed, and the year before that when 3,210 were distributed.

Students entered in the lottery will find out if they got housing on Feb. 15. The lottery's cut-off number will be determined by how many students apply for housing, Schipani said. This year, 1,731 seniors lived on campus.

Lisa Spirito, a 5th-semester psychology major, received number one in the housing lottery. She is guaranteed housing anyway because she is studying abroad next semester, and she plans on taking advantage of it. Spirito hopes to live in Hilltop or Charter Oak Apartments.

"I thought it was funny when I got number one," she said. "I didn't even realize it was a good thing until my friends told me they were in the thousands. Things like that never happen to me."

For students who lose out in the lottery, the office of Off-Campus Student Services, which opened two years ago, is available to help students transitioning to living off campus.

Jim Hintz, the director of off-campus student services, said the department opened because the university felt there was not enough support for students who were moving off campus.

The department creates resources for students to get information on off-campus housing. Hintz said the biggest resources are the office's Web site and the housing fair, where property managers set up information tables.

"We try to point students in the right direction," Hintz said.