Transparency and Harmony Hall

Increased class sizes, the possible phase-in of wireless Internet in dorms, and changing room layouts are just three of the major factors that will affect the housing selection process this year. The general confusion and ignorance that surrounds students’ decisions, however, is one probable constant. Given the yearly madness and the inevitable impact that the aforementioned changes will have on students’ lives, there is one goal that the administration should pursue this spring: greater transparency.

Columbia College recently announced that class sizes will increase by 50 indefinitely. This necessarily means that there will be more students taking part in the housing selection process—not only next year, but in the years to come. At the moment, the addition of a new residence hall—like Harmony Hall last year—is unlikely. Instead, probable changes include more beds in Ruggles and McBain, bedrooms in the lobby of Furnald, and a new brownstone. Administrators say they do not foresee a campus housing shortage, given the soft off-campus housing market and the number of students studying abroad. But the latter is an unpredictable variable, and the fact is that no matter what the housing market looks like, the majority of Columbia students are going to live on campus.

Students also remain uninformed about the addition of wireless Internet to some, but not all, dorms. Wireless will be extended to certain residence halls next year, but students do not know which ones. This is, at least in part, because the change is still in the planning stages. Administrators have promised that students will know before room selection, but housing registration is on March 1, and this information could impact something as simple as whether one is interested in a double in a Ruggles suite or a single in a hall in Broadway. The sooner students are informed, the more informed their housing decisions will be.

Year after year, housing is a confusing and stressful process for undergraduates. Part of this is unavoidable, and part of it is because Columbia students are lucky enough to be guaranteed housing all four years. There will always be some confusion, a fair bit of anxiety, and a good deal of disappointment. In the past, however, important changes have been made public at the last minute and students left in the dark until they arrived at suite selection. There are plenty of factors that neither students nor administrators can control, but keeping students fully informed at every stage in the selection process is not one of them. Wherever individual students choose to live next year, their decisions should be aided by timely transparency throughout the process.