The Office of Residential Living amended the housing selection policy on Jan. 16, preventing students accepted to fall semester study abroad from entering housing selection.
Previously, study abroad applicants could enter the housing selection process and withdraw from housing if accepted to study abroad. According to Executive Director for Residential Services Patrick Killilee, a popular practice for rising juniors going abroad in the fall was to have fellow juniors remaining on campus for the fall pull up sophomores to fill their spots until they returned in the spring. The sophomores would then voluntarily withdraw from their housing agreement to allow returning juniors to reclaim their spots.
According to Craig Rinker, director of overseas studies in the Office of International Programs, the housing application and selection process is now transitioning from an annual to a biannual process and selection will now occur after study abroad decisions are confirmed.
The change requires rising juniors who choose rising sophomores to hold housing spots to now enter selection together. Because, according to the housing handbook, rising sophomores have three housing points and rising juniors have four, such groups will be disadvantaged.
Rinker said that he “does not anticipate significant impacts to the accessibility of campus housing as a result of this transition” since students will be expected to apply for housing for “the appropriate semester they will be on campus.”
On Tuesday, Will Simons (COL ‘16) created a Facebook event in reaction to the policy alteration. Simons argues the policy “essentially states that any student who wishes to receive desirable, on-campus housing must forego fall study abroad,” limiting student accessibility to study abroad and forcing students who already made plans for fall study abroad to reconsider their options.
At the time of publication, the event had already garnered over 600 “attendees” who indicated their support. Killilee addressed such concerns, saying that “this is not meant to penalize students who are studying abroad in any way. … It’s not a change in policy, it’s a change in procedure.”
The change was also added into the housing selection manual without a public announcement to the student body.
“We don’t normally send something out every time it’s been [edited], but we also knew we were doing our kickoff email this week for the housing selection process,” Killilee said. “It’s six to seven weeks before the first selection phase … so that really is a fair amount of time, I think, for people to make plans.”
Georgetown University Student Association Senate Speaker Sam Greco (SFS ‘15) told the Voice that GUSA would be meeting with housing Thursday to clarify the policy and implications.
