Housing Options for 2018-2019 presentation

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This presentation consists of 3 sections:

1. On-Campus Housing

2. Off-Campus Housing

3. Student Legal Services

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Thank you for your interest in living on campus for the 2018-2019 academic year!

Housing and Food Service (HFS) Contracts are allocated to students:

• First-year students are required to live on campus for the first year and are guaranteed a housing space

• Upper-class students are not required to live on campus, and must participate in a lottery process

Please note, once a student moves off campus, the student will not be eligible to participate in the lottery process. However, the student may add their name to the Supplemental Housing Waitlist (which opens February 26) in eLiving. Throughout the spring and summer, if space becomes available, students on the Waitlist will receive an offer for supplemental housing. After accepting the offer, the student can add their name to a Waitlist for other housing options. If space becomes available in a housing option, the Assignment Office will reassign a student from the Waitlist.

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Who lives on campus?

• About 60% of space on campus is reserved for first-year students, since they are required to live on campus.

• The next largest class is sophomores, then juniors, seniors, then super-seniors

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The majority of first-year students live in traditional residence halls (a few are assigned to suites and renovated buildings though).

Upper-class students have many more options!

Visit www.housing.psu.edu/housing-areas to learn more about these options.

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If you are familiar with University Park, you know that there is no shortage of Construction Projects happening. We are so excited to finally have some construction projects occurring in the residence halls! the goal of our projects is to improve the quality of the student living experience. The current project is focusing on renovation work to East Halls, then Pollock Halls.

For the 2018-2019 academic year, 3 renovated halls and 1 new hall will be online (Stuart, McKean, Pennypacker, and Martin, respectively), which will house all first-year students. In May 2018, 3 buildings will be taken offline for renovation work (Brumbaugh, Pinchot, and Tener) and will reopen fall 2019. The next phase of the project is projected to have 2 buildings offline every year to complete East Halls, then move to Pollock. (each phase needs to be approved by Board of Trustees).

The construction projects will not have a significant impact on the overall occupancy at University Park, as the three newly constructed buildings even out the space that is not available during renovation work.

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The Housing Contract Process consists of 9 separate lotteries that each have 3 rounds of offers. With this many lotteries occurring, it’s hard to provide statistics to show how many students receive housing. Students are not required to participate in the lottery process for all housing options.

However, to give you a better understanding of the likelihood of your student receiving an offer, if we focus on the Traditional Residence Hall lottery, from which a student may receive either an offer for a traditional residence hall OR supplemental housing, you can see that for the past 3 years, we have been able to make an offer to all students who participated in that process. Granted, not all students who received an offer may have accepted the offer. During this process, we do offer supplemental housing as “overflow” housing – students with supplemental housing acknowledge, that at a minimum, they are accepting a contract and will be assigned to a supplemental housing room. With the normal cancellations that occur (from students who transfer from Penn State or have an internship/study aboard/etc.), we know that there will be vacancies in other spaces that become available during the spring and summer. Students who have a supplemental housing contract can then be assigned to other space by adding their name to the Waitlists for any other housing option.

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The on-campus housing process is managed through the eLiving portal, available at www.eLiving.psu.edu. Note, only students have access to this system.

Additional information about the housing lottery process is available through www.UPcontracts.psu.edu

Housing Process Steps (each step is detailed on future slides)

1. Review the available housing options that will be available during the lottery

2. Estimate Room and Board Charges

3. Indicate a roommate request for each housing lottery (optional)

4. Submit a request by the deadline date

5. Check eLiving for an offer

6. Accept the offer before the expiration date

7. Room Assignment – based on contract offer type (self-select or preference)

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Housing Options Available for upper-class students

Group One

1. Nittany Apartments (on-campus apartments for 4 students)

2. White Course Apartments (on-campus apartments for 4 students)

3. Eastview Terrace (single room with private bathroom)

4. Nittany Hall Suites (two-bedroom suite for 4 students)

5. North Hall Suites (two-bedroom suite for 4 students)

6. Single Room, Traditional Hall (single room, traditional hall in West {all buildings}, South {McElwain, Atherton, Simmons}, or Pollock {Beaver, Hiester})

7. Double Room, Renovated Hall (double room, renovated hall in South {Chace, Hibbs, Stephens})

Group Two

1. Double Room, Traditional Hall (double room, traditional hall in West, South, or Pollock)

2. Supplemental Housing (students can request supplemental housing, some opt to do this for financial reasons or for students with a group of 4+ who want to live together)

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Review current room and board rates at www.hfs.psu.edu/rates. Estimate about a 4-5% increase for next year, although rates will not be approved by the Board of Trustees until March. Take into account what your Financial Aid package will cover.

Do not participate in a lottery process for a housing option that you cannot afford! For instance, Eastview is the highest room rate on campus; we do not want students to accept an Eastview contract who cannot afford the rate. The University will not change a student’s assignment due to affordability – a student should only accept a housing option that he/she is willing to live in and pay for.

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Students are able to indicate a roommate preference when submitting a request, however it is NOT required. The student’s request must be mutual in order for the system to work effectively.

1 Roommate Request: the majority of housing options only allow the student to indicate 1 roommate request

3 Roommate Requests: for Nittany and White Course Apartments, the student can indicate up to 3 roommate requests. Roommate requests must be completely mutual!! The group of 4 students must exclusively indicate the same group of students, no additional students can be indicated, or the system will not offer contracts effectively. For example, Students A, B, and C mutually indicate each other as well as Student D. However, Student D only indicates Student A & B, and adds Student E. Student D is selected through the lottery. Student D, A, and B receive an offer, but not Student C. Student E may receive an offer if the request is mutual between D & E.

Confusing? Yes – so it’s important for students to ensure that they are an exclusive group.

Each student who receives an offer MUST ACCEPT THE OFFER. If one student’s contract expires, that student will not be eligible to live on campus (and the other students cannot cancel their contract)

If a student indicates a roommate request, that roommate request does not have to be the actual roommate. This is helpful if the student has a change of heart or if the other student changes their mind about their housing plan.

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Submit a request by deadline, depending upon the housing option group:

Group One Noon Monday November 27

Group Two Noon Monday February 5

Once the deadline has passed, a request cannot be added to the system (staff cannot add a request either).

A student can submit a request for all housing options at the same time. If a student does not submit a request by the November 27 deadline, the student can still submit a request for the double room, traditional hall lottery before the February 5 deadline.

System will open October 14.

The lottery is NOT first-come, first-serve, so it does not matter when a request is submitted, as long as the request is in the system by the deadline date.

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Contract offers expire at NOON. A student must accept the contract before the Noon deadline hits, so that means a student must log in and click the “accept” button before noon.

Once a contract expires, it will NOT be reoffered under any circumstance, even if they call at 12:01pm!

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When a contract offer is made, the offer will be for a specific housing option, and will either be a self-select or preference contract (so a student who participates in the Nittany Apartment lottery and receives an offer, the offer would be for either Nittany Apartment Self-Select or Nittany Apartment)

• Self-Select: the student will be given a date/time to return to eLiving to select a room from available spaces

• Preference: the student will indicate preferences when accepting the contract, such as roommate or room type. Housing will process the assignment.

The number of self-select contracts offered has to be less than the space available by gender, so students have the ability to find a room.

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Students who receive a self-select contract will be provided with a date/time to return to eLiving to select their room assignment. Self-selection occurs between March 19 – April 13. We have to wait until the room rates for 18-19 are approved by the Board of Trustees, that way a student knows the room rate of the space they are selecting.

The student can view the list of vacancies up to 3 days prior to their self-selection date. Once they are eligible to participate, the list of available rooms at that time will display. Not all the rooms in a building will be displayed! Some rooms are blocked for first-year students, medical spaces, RA rooms, etc., or the opposite gender, and therefore will not be an option.

For a group of 2 students, each student needs to indicate a roommate preference. If roommate preference is mutual, the student with the earliest self-selection date may select a room. The system will then place both students in that room. If either of the students decide to change rooms, each student will have to process the room assignment change individually. The system will only assign the students together upon the initial assignment. After that, it must be completed individually.

For a group of 4 students, the group should pair off into two sub-groups of 2 students, and each sub-group of 2 students should list each other exclusively. Each sub-group will select a room assignment and the two groups can try to get into the same apartment/suite. The system cannot process a room assignment for the entire group of 4, so each group of 2 will need to coordinate the selection process. If the group is not able to get into the same apartment, the students may try to use the eBoard once it opens in July.

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A preference contract is similar to what a student completed as a first-year student, indicating preferences for area/building/room type/etc. Preferences can be modified until Noon April 13. The Assignment Office will then process an assignment. There is no guarantee that a preference indicated will be honored, due to the high demand for certain space.

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There are 3 rounds of offers made during the two contract offer periods (the dates for the processes will be shown in a few slides). Offers made cannot exceed space available for each housing option, hence the reason for three rounds. Not all students will accept the offer, so those spaces are “recycled” as offers to other students.

If a student requested more than 1 housing option, the student may receive multiple offers. Once a student accepts an offer, the student will be removed from the lottery during future rounds. If a student receives an offer but does not accept the offer (and the offer expires) because the student is waiting to see what other options they may receive, the expired offer will NOT be reoffered. There is no way for the Assignment Office to predict who will receive an offer or which round.

Students will be notified by email of the results after each round.

Supplemental housing is offered to students who participate in the Traditional Residence Hall lottery process. This serves as “overflow” housing, and students who accept supplemental will be eligible to add their name to the Waitlists for other housing options. The Waitlists will be used to fill vacancies that occur during the spring and summer. There is no guarantee that a student will be reassigned out of supplemental housing, so a student must understand that at a minimum, they could be assigned to supplemental housing but they are on campus! However, the Assignment Office has been able to process many reassignments for students, including after arrival!

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Group One Process Timeline

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Group Two Process Timeline

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REMINDERS:

HFS Contract is legally-binding! It will NOT be cancelled for a student to move off campus. This includes students who join a sorority or fraternity.

For a student who is currently at a Commonwealth Campus but is planning a Change of Campus to University Park (who should participate and accept a contract even if they are not sure about the approval yet), the HFS Contract may be cancelled with NO penalty if the student is not approved to move to UP. If the student is approved, the HFS Contract may not be cancelled for the student to live off campus.

The ability to Transfer the Contract Obligation is an option, but student should contact the Assignment Office to learn about the details – there are eligibility guidelines, restrictions, and deadlines.

The student may utilize the Waitlist/eBoard to change their contract type and room assignment. The Waitlist is available after February 26. The eBoard will be available in the summer once room assignments are posted.

Off-campus students are not eligible to participate in the lottery process, but can add their name to the Supplemental Housing Waitlist to be considered for housing. Once a students accepts the Supplemental contract, the student is then eligible to add name to other housing options Waitlist and will be considered for reassignment if a vacancy becomes available.

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Off-Campus Housing Fair

The Assignment Office will be participating in both fairs, so if students have additional questions, they can stop by for assistance. Plus, we’ll have Penn State Bakery cookies

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