A while back, I was buzzing with excitement about what housing I could get next year. As a rising sophomore, tons of options opened up for me that weren\u2019t there before, such as the on-campus apartments, Panther Hall and many others. Thinking of all the ways I\u2019d decorate my new space and personalize just as I did with my current Tower C single had me feeling the college spirit again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Oh, how naive I was.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
In December when we were given our lottery numbers, I was completely confused on how the process would work. A lottery number for housing? What was I supposed to do with that? So I decided to ignore it for a while \u2014 or as long as I could without the growing concern that everyone else had a lower number than me. \u201cI have such a bad number. It\u2019s in the 3000s,\u201d my friend had told me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mine was 7024.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
For months, I went through a period of blissful ignorance, just hoping that my number didn\u2019t matter and that it wasn\u2019t that important for housing. Eventually, I found out it was. I had also gotten the third-to-last time slot possible for picking general housing. Still, I persisted on with a quiet conviction that it\u2019d all work out. That was until my mom texted me the day before my time slot letting me know that there were only three housing options left. That text came before I opened the Pitt Housing Portal to see my only option left \u2014 The Hampton Inn.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Being forced into the Hampton Inn for my sophomore year at Pitt didn\u2019t even cross my mind as a possibility until it was presented as my only choice. Honestly, I still can\u2019t believe it as I\u2019m writing this now. Like, seriously?! The Hampton Inn. THE Hampton Inn. The hotel Pitt converted into dorms as a last-minute Hail Mary to get the overenrolled first-years from this year into some stable housing<\/a>. That\u2019s where I was subjected to go as a sophomore?\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s no new topic of discussion that Pitt has a big housing and overenrollment problem <\/a>at the moment. Along with converting the Hampton Inn to dorms, many previous double-bed dorms have been turned to triples in Holland Hall, Nordenberg Hall and Forbes Hall. Lounges in Towers have also been converted into dorms. Living in Tower C \u2014 a dorm building that is already isolating \u2014 without any third spaces to meet people in the building is very hard socially. There\u2019s seemingly no sign of these conversions stopping, either. Pitt is planning to increase enrollment to 22,000 by 2028, according to Plan for Pitt<\/a>. It feels as though Pitt has no care for the living conditions of its current students and is only concerned with inviting more into the mess. After all, more students means more tuition money for Pitt regardless of whether there\u2019s adequate housing to support them.<\/p>\n Moreover, the lottery number system itself is so ineffective and unfair to students like me who, through no fault of my own, get stuck with zero choice over what they\u2019re paying over $10,000 per year to live in. I\u2019m not trying to get too \u201cwoe is me\u201d about my housing, but I honestly do think I have the right to feel slighted. I\u2019m on the Dean\u2019s List, am a Senior Staff Writer for the Pitt News, have a 3.75 GPA and currently have 52 credits as a first-year. I\u2019m not a disengaged or struggling student. And yet, none of that matters. That\u2019s the issue. The system doesn\u2019t reward effort, involvement or commitment to the University. It doesn\u2019t even guarantee a baseline level of quality. It\u2019s random, and when combined with overenrollment it becomes inequitable.<\/p>\n To be clear, I\u2019m not saying there\u2019s an easy solution, either. I\u2019m not sure what new system Pitt should use for housing, but at the end of the day that\u2019s not my job. It\u2019s the responsibility of University leaders to ensure that students with guaranteed housing also have a fair shot at livable, reasonable options. Students shouldn\u2019t have to gamble for housing. If Pitt continues to treat it like a game of chance, the University shouldn\u2019t be surprised when students start questioning what exactly they\u2019re paying for.\u00a0<\/p>\n