If you are fed up with the housing lottery, Student Development is offering a new option that would eliminate the stress of waiting for hours to hear your number called only to get placed in a room you do not want.
The Community Sustainability Option allows any current resident student to remain in their exact same room with the exact same roommate for the coming school year, instead of going through the housing process.
Coordinator of Housing Travis Yoder said that the option was created to give students more control and consistency in their selection of a room and to encourage them to make a long-term investment in a particular community.
To qualify for CSO, all occupants of the room must agree to live together for the following school year and be registered as full-time for the fall semester.
Students who are studying abroad in the fall cannot apply, but students graduating in December or studying abroad in the spring are eligible.
“I think students will initially wonder why it’s so narrowly defined, and that’s fair,” Yoder said. “If this takes off and goes well, we’ll look to open it up more.”
Even if a student chooses to exercise this option, Yoder said that everyone still needs to go through the same check-in and check-out process. Students cannot leave personal items in their rooms over the summer due to the numerous conferences and camps held on campus that utilize the residence halls.
In order to maintain Eastern’s mission to integrate housing amongst classes, no more than 65 percent of the residents in each living area will be granted rooms through CSO.
If more than 65 percent apply for CSO, rooms will be granted based on class rank and application submission.
“The thing that’s so powerful about resident life at Eastern is that it is inundated with so many people and places,” Yoder said. “We don’t want to shortchange students from that in any way.”
Anyone interested in this option must meet all of the housing deadlines, especially the March 19 deposit date.
Students will be receiving more information about CSO, including application forms, within the next two weeks. Applications must be submitted in person by 3 p.m. on March 31. All residents listed on the application must be present for the request to be verified.
Those that apply will receive an e-mail on April 6 that either announces that their CSO request was granted or invites them to the housing lottery.
Grace Nealy 
Jason Karch 
Josh Steen