Beginning next semester, second-year students will have the opportunity to move into North Village II. The change reverses a policy barring underclassmen from all independent living spaces that was instated last spring. The Office of Residence Life announced the reversal in an email sent to sophomores on Nov. 10.

Dean for the Student Experience Ian Binnington stated that the decision was the latest iteration of a conversation that has been ongoing in Residence Life for years.

“The fundamental problem that we have faced over the years given the various ways that we have run room draw is, frankly, dissatisfaction from juniors and seniors who felt that sophomores were taking beds in NVI and NVII and some of the houses,” Binnington said. “So for years we had complaints from seniors and juniors who felt that they were getting shut out of particular types of housing.”

Prior to this year, the original housing selection process assigned each student a lottery number by class year, with top numbers getting first pick of their housing. There were no restrictions on where sophomores, juniors or seniors could live.

However, the housing selection process for the fall 2025 semester prohibited sophomores from registering for any of the independent living style housing options on campus: North Village I and II, College Court, Allegheny Commons and Special Interest Housing on Loomis Street. The change aimed to ensure sophomores were not taking rooms from upperclassmen, according to Binnington.

However, Binnington said Residence Life “overcorrected” the issue.

“The reality is that there was more space than we thought there was going to be; there was absolutely room to make some changes,” Binnington said. “We overcorrected, we got some student complaints, as I’m sure you know, and we saw an opportunity to do a mid-course correction that would allow us to make it easier for sophomores to move into some of those spaces.”

Dean for Student Life Trae Yeckley brought the idea for the mid-semester draw to Binnington in the month prior to informing the sophomore class in the email sent on Nov 10. Binnington said he had thought it was a “great idea.”

Yeckley declined an interview and referred The Campus to Vice President for Enrollment Management Jenn Winge, ’96, who referred The Campus to Binnington.

The email sent to sophomores said they had four days to enter their names into the lottery to win a room in NVII. Sophomore students who indicated their interest will be given a lottery number to determine selection order, similar to the old system, and will participate in the housing selection process on Dec. 3. Sophomores were only given the option to move into NVII for the spring semester to fill any remaining available doubles or quads.

Additionally, upperclassmen who have an opening in their apartment have the ability to invite sophomores to fill that opening, provided that they contact Residence Life, according to the email.
The high volume of emails that Residence Life received spoke to the students’ level of interest, said Binnington.

“Had we opened NVII to sophomores in the original room draw in spring, it seems like there would have been a lot of interest,” Binnington said. “I don’t know what the level of interest is going to be. Folks may very well be settled in the spaces that they’re in, so we will see.”

Natalie Anderson, ’28, said she would have been more interested in living in NV at the time of the spring housing selection.

“Me and some of my friends were considering — since NV is harder to get into — we were considering even going into College Court, since it’s still apartment style like NV, so I definitely would have been interested in it when they originally opened it (the selection process).”

Anderson was initially interested in the opportunity to move into NV but was apprehensive largely because of the timing.

“I think the idea of it is interesting,” Anderson said. “Just personally, I don’t have anyone to move into NV with, and it’s also a weird time in the semester to bring it up. I know the move out time is during finals, so I really don’t want to be moving during finals.”

Binnington does not anticipate any dissatisfaction from upperclassmen going forward.

“I can’t speak for the entire junior and senior classes, but if their complaint was they couldn’t get into North Village, they had the chance to get into North Village before the sophomores did,” Binnington said. “We’re not selling occupied beds. We’re not moving anybody out of North Village II so that sophomores can move in.”

Naydean Massie, ’27, a current NVII resident, offered a different criticism of the selection process. To her, the issue is that the back-and-forth of Residence Life policy changes affected not only sophomores, but also juniors and seniors who were not able to sign up for independent housing in the spring because, without their sophomore friends, they lacked a sufficient number of people to fill a suite.

“I don’t mind the fact that sophomores are allowed in NV, I think that everyone should have a right to live anywhere on campus,” Massie said. “It’s a really great experience to live in NV, but I do think it kind of sucks for some of the juniors and seniors that may not have had the opportunity because they didn’t have enough people.”

“I think the order in which they (Residence Life) did it is wrong,” she continued.

Residence Life has not yet made any final decision about what the housing selection process will look like going forward, according to Binnington.

“Yes, this might be a thing we continue doing, it might not,” Binnington said. “It is especially now being used to address an issue; and the issue is that we didn’t allow sophomores into a particular residence hall, we ended up with beds that they could’ve occupied, and now we’re going to let them occupy them if they want to.”

Binnington said that although decisions have not yet been finalized for what the spring housing selection process will look like, he does not anticipate any delays in the selection for the fall.
“That usually happens starting in February (or) March, so we’re in the process of planning for that,” Binnington said. “Those decisions are not final yet. Because we are having some staffing transitions, my guess is that the decision won’t formally be made until the beginning of the spring semester.”

After the abrupt departure of former Associate Dean for Residence Life Stacie Wolbert, Residence Life has prioritized finding someone to fill her position. Instead of an associate dean, the position is being changed to director. Binnington said Residence Life is currently interviewing for the director position.

Binnington also anticipates further movement of students in the residence halls as students depart for and return from study abroad programs in the spring semester. Residence Life has made no changes to the limited housing selection process for students who return from study abroad programs in the spring semester. In a follow-up email to The Campus about study abroad, Binnington said “students who have a vacant space picked out in an existing apartment with friends, are asked to contact Residence Life with that information. Students without such a space in mind are put into a mini lottery run on similar lines to the Fall housing selection.”

As it stands, the only formal change Residence Life has made is the mid-year draw to allow Sophomores once again the opportunity to live in NVII.

“To a certain extent, this is about fairness; it’s up to the students as to whether or not they want to take advantage of it,” Binnington said. “We want to give students the opportunity, and then if they want to take the opportunity, that’s up to them.”