IWU students returning to campus next semester completed the housing selection process last week.
The housing selection involves students getting the opportunity to select which specific room they and their selected roommates would like to live in based on their academic credit count. This year, the housing selection took place with a new online software.
Shelby Louve, the director of residence life, said that IWU switched its software because the new one had increased user ability and the old software chose to no longer make future updates. Louve also said they’d had the previous software since 2016.
Jeremy Gross, the Resident Director of Hodson Hall, said in an email that the new software appeared to work smoothly and will likely get even better in future years. As a resident director, Gross said he helps to guide and advise students on realistic housing options.
Students’ perspectives on the housing selection process vary depending on the situation. Ethan Crawford, a current junior at Indiana Wesleyan, said he had some initial frustrations with his selection.
“My friends and I tried to get into the townhouses, and I was with all seniors who had a significant amount of credits, but I guess due to accommodations we weren’t able to get into the [townhouses],” Crawford said.
Louve said that lots of different student situations and university programs exist that require students who fit certain descriptions to be housed before the selection process. Because there are a limited number of beds in the upperclassmen halls, some of those students aren’t going to get their first choice.
Crawford said he’d like to see seniority have a higher priority in housing than it currently has.
Aidan Wissing, a freshman currently living in Hodson Hall, said he felt satisfied with the overall housing process. He said he got into his first choice of room in Kem Hall, and he found the new software to be intuitive and easy to navigate, with the only drawback coming in roommate selection.
“It became a little bit confusing as to when the cutoff dates were to add roommates or take people off your group, and then we didn’t know if it would actually penalize us for doing so,” Wissing said.
Louve said that compared to other schools of similar size, IWU has a convenient housing selection process, and although students want to live in certain places, they can also have a good college experience regardless.
“I can live with people, my friends and my community, and we can make our experience what we want it to be based on where we live, but where we live doesn’t have to dictate the experience that we have,” Louve said.
