Student Housing

Housing Lottery Information from Residential Life

Each year the staff in Residential Life anticipate a housing lottery where some returning students are told they cannot return to on-campus housing for the next academic year. The lottery process ensures that the University is able to guarantee housing to incoming new students who have never lived on-campus. We have used the lottery process since 2001 as a way to manage the high demand expressed for the limited number of spaces available to undergraduate students.

Due to the unprecedented high demand for housing for the 2008-2009 academic year, a lottery will be implemented for the fall 2009. Residential Life is working to develop strategies to diminish the number of students impacted by the lottery. Examples of strategies we are currently exploring are:

• Redeployment of housing assets
• Evaluating deadlines for new and returning students
• Potentially reinstituting a housing deposit

Once again we are assigning lottery numbers to students who are currently living on-campus. In keeping with the University’s commitment to housing the younger students who have not received the benefits provided by living on-campus, we have assigned lottery numbers to students who are in their fifth or sixth semesters in the residence halls. The lottery numbers have been randomly assigned through a computerized system.

The lottery announcement will be made on February 13, 2009 and students affected by the process will not receive housing. This decision will be communicated via HuskyMail. To keep students informed; procedures for implementing a lottery are listed below:

Lottery numbers 1 – 2,500 have been randomly assigned to students. As the lottery number goes up, the chances are greater that a student will not be able to participate in the on-campus housing selection process as a result of the lottery.

Students meeting one of the categories listed below are exempt from a housing lottery: and therefore were not assigned numbers:

• Resident students who have lived on campus fewer than five semesters, including the Fall 2008 semester,
• Resident students who receive full University funded scholarships (tuition, fees, room and board),
• Resident students identified as University Scholars,
• Resident students with documented disabilities that require an on-campus accommodation, as determined by the Center for Students with Disabilities.
• Students returning to the Storrs campus in the fall of 2009 from a UConn sponsored off-campus program such as Study Abroad, Co-op, and National Student Exchange.

So what does this mean if I’m a student with a disability who has received a housing accommodation in previous semesters?

• Only students with significant disabilities resulting in SUBSTANTIAL LIMITATIONS, and for whom living off campus is NOT VIABLE, will be considered for an exemption. Students who received accommodations in previous semesters are not automatically exempt from the lottery.
• If you received a lottery number, you must wait for the outcome of the lottery.
• Accommodation requests from eligible students who are not affected by the lottery are reviewed on a case-by-case basis in order to determine if an accommodation is warranted.

The accommodation request procedure for students with disabilities who are eligible for housing will be posted on December 1, 2008.