Rachel Ungerleider, Contributing Writer

Each spring, students who choose to live on campus endure the challenges of the housing lottery.  This year, on March 2, students headed to Brandt Student Center to pick out their housing for the 2016-2017 school year.

For some students, like freshman Brooklyn Russick, this process went without a hitch.

“Choosing housing [for next year] was a really easy process for me seeing that I was the first freshman to pick,” said Russick. “It was nice to have the blueprints of both Edwards and the [University Inn] right in front of me to make my decision easier.”

For others, some unusual dilemmas that struck an unhappy chord. Many went into the housing lottery hopeful that they would get the room of their dreams, but when the time came for students to walk over to choose their future room, they realized that they were not going to be receiving the room they had hoped.

“I paid my deposit a little later than I should have,” said freshman Adam Ibrahim, “[so] some of the dorms were already filled up,” when he went to choose his housing.

Additionally, The University Inn, one of the most popular dorms on campus, quickly filled, due to the incoming freshman class being the biggest class ever held on campus. The typically sophomore-only residence hall had to reserve the first two floors of the building for the class of 2020.

One student voiced her opinion about this housing issue to President Fitzsimmons herself.

“I emailed the president because she is the leader of this University and I knew if I had an issue I should just take it straight to her,” said freshman Alyssa Carter. “I let [her] know that I was frustrated about the space issue.”

Overall, on-campus housing was more of a struggle this year than usual, and the University will need to work to resolve the issue for next year.

“I understood we were expanding,” Carter said, “but…we should have the space before we let new people in, because it is not fair to the people that are already here.”