What are Special Priorities?
Experience has shown that certain residences with special themes, student interests, and methods of house management are more successful when their residents hold a common concern for that which makes the residence unique. These houses issue special priorities to students who demonstrate a specific interest in the house, usually by visiting the house or participating in a house-organized activity. Special priorities available in the 2008-09 Draw are described below in the List of Special Priorities. There are four types of houses that have special priorities. Requests for special priorities are strictly evaluated based on these criteria; students who do not fulfill the indicated criteria are not given priority.
Except in focus houses, students with special priorities who are in the assignable pool and who list a special priority house as a specific choice are always assigned to that house before students without special priorities. In focus houses, a specified number of spaces in each house are reserved for students in the assignable pool who have a special priority for the house. The remaining spaces in each house are available to any student. If all priority spaces cannot be filled by students with a priority, then students without a priority are assigned to those spaces.
If you are interested in being assigned to any of the houses that offer special priorities, you should visit the house, talk to current residents, complete house requirements for receiving priority, and turn in an application, so an authorized draw representative can enter your priority. Each student may collect a maximum of eight special priorities.
The deadline to apply for special priorities is Friday, April 25 at 5:00 PM.
If you believe that you should have a particular priority, but it is not showing on your application by May 5, contact the priority rep immediately. Any priorities that have not been added by May 11 will not be considered in the draw. Be aware that priority reps are not required to finish entering priorities into students applications until Monday, May 5. Student priorities may not appear until then.
Obtaining a Special Priority through the Draw
Some houses have special priorities to allow students that are interested in a particular house theme to have a better chance of drawing into the house. Priority applications must be submitted by Friday, April 25, 2008. To obtain a special priority, you should visit the special
priority house, fill out a priority form for that house, and turn in the form as indicated by the deadline above. Some houses have some other requirements that will be listed on the form. If you have questions, you can ask an authorized priority representative. These priorities are entered by the representative of each house and not by the Housing Assignments staff. You may collect a maximum of eight special priorities. Priorities for those in groups are removed if every member of the group does not have the priority before the application deadline.
Once the computer program determines which students can be assigned to University housing given the number of housing spaces available (a process that yields the "assignable pool" -- see The Draw), assignments are made to individual residences first on the basis of priorities and then on the basis of application numbers. Having a priority to a given house increases your chance of being assigned to that house. Priorities are of three types: (1) special (issued according to objective criteria), (2) ethnic, and (3) international. Two limitations on priorities are important to keep in mind. First, priorities have no effect on your chance of being placed in the assignable pool. Therefore, if your guarantee status and application number do not place you in the assignable pool, you are not considered for assignment to any residence, and any priorities that you have do not help. Second, to benefit from a priority to a given house, you must list that specific house among your choices. For example, to activate a priority for Terra, you must list Terra specifically on your housing application. Merely listing "Any Cooperative House" does not activate the Terra priority.
Theme priorities affect assignments made during the 2008 Draw
and subsequent Waiting List and Walk-In assignments throughout
the 2008-09 academic year. All priorities are applicable for
one year only and are subject to change for the Draw in Spring 2009.
Criteria for Special Priorities. Requests for special priorities are strictly evaluated based on the criteria noted in the application form. Students who do not fulfill the criteria indicated are not given priority.
Checking Your Priorities. Housing Assignments is not responsible for evaluating requests for special priorities or for ensuring that priorities are entered into the priority system. You are encouraged to use the "view your housing application" function in Axess to check that the priorities you have requested have been entered by the authorized draw representatives.
If you believe that you should have a particular priority, but it is not showing on your application by May 5, contact the priority rep immediately. Any priorities that have not been added by May 11 will not be considered in the draw. Be aware that priority reps are not required to finish entering priorities into students applications until Monday, May 5. Student priorities may not appear until then.
Listing Residence as First
Choice for Priority. If a special priority requires
that you list a residence as the first choice on your housing
application and you do not do so, the priority is deactivated
(or where applicable, changed to a level two priority).
Once a priority is changed, it cannot be reinstated for
a subsequent assignment round.
Special Priority Agreements.
Some residences may have special priority agreements, which
students complete to request a special priority. By signing
the special priority agreement, you agree to be held to
the terms of the agreement if you are assigned to the house,
even if you are assigned to the house without the assistance
of the special priority. If you are assigned to a special
priority house and do not fulfill the requirements of your
special priority agreement (if any), you may be reassigned
to another residence for the remainder of the academic year,
or your housing privileges may be suspended. You may also
be denied a special priority to that house in subsequent
years.
Absentee Applicants. Special
priorities are only extended to students who visit or write
to a house and complete the requirements to obtain the priority.
Absentee applicants who wish to obtain priorities must make
these requests themselves. Friends at the home campus, including
group members, are not able to request special priorities
for absentee applicants.
Returning to a Priority House within the Same Year. In previous years, residence priorities were only given out during Draw season. For 2008-09, we will allow students who were assigned without a priority to a priority house for Autumn 2008, who leave campus in Winter 2009, and who would like to return to campus in Spring 2009, to have a returning priority. It will be the student's responsibility to contact the house manager and ask him or her to contact our office to give that student the house's priority for the Spring Waiting List. This will not guarantee that students will be placed in the house, but it will give them a chance to be assigned before students without priority. These priorities need to be requested by the Spring Waiting List deadline of February 6, 2009.
Note: Students will still need to apply for priorities by the April 25, 2008 deadline. This change is only for students assigned without a priority to a priority house, who leave for a quarter, and who would like to return to the house in a future quarter that same year.
Select here for descriptions of all special priorities
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