Issue date: 4/23/08Section: News

The 289 available spots in the new townhouses may have been filled during this year's room selection day on Saturday, April 12, but the housing procedure could not escape controversy.


Students complain that a points requirement for the townhouses was enforced during the beginning of the day, but as other on-campus accommodations filled to capacity later that day, students who would previously have been deemed ineligible were able to gain rooms in the townhouses because building space needed to be filled.

"I think it's unfair," said student Vincy Chacko. "I understand that they have to get students housing, but things should have ran smoother than they did."

According to the Office of Residence Life Room Selection 2008 - 2009 packet, the primary criteria for determining students who receive housing is broken down to points given based on each student's GPA and judicial history.

Depending on their GPA, students can receive as much as 10 points for a GPA of 3.85 or higher and as low as 3 points for a GPA under a 3.0. For judicial history, a student is awarded 10 points for no previous judicial violations as a St. John's undergraduate and can receive as little as 0 points if they have "two or more serious violations of the Student Code of Conduct … 3 or more minor violations of residence hall policies and procedures, and any student listed on permanent housing probation."

The packet also states that students who are on housing or disciplinary probation, have three or more policy violations in the past academic year, or are on academic probation with a GPA less than a 2.0, were automatically ineligible to participate in the latest room selection process.

Dominic Petruzzelli, director of Residence Life, added that along with GPA and judicial history, other factors that play a roll in determining a student's housing include "class status, gender and available space."

Various students said the minimum points requirement for the townhouses were at least five points for the GPA portion and seven or more points for judicial history.

However, this could not be confirmed by Petruzzelli, who did not specify exactly what the breakdown in points needed were.
The Residence Life director paints a slightly different picture of the events on April 12.

He recalls that "between 2:15 p.m. and 3 p.m." rooms in Century, O'Connor and Carey residence halls, as well as the male floors of the townhouses, were all filled, leaving the female floors of the townhouse as the only available source of on-campus housing.

Continued...

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