By ANISA ARSENAULT

STAFF WRITER

Two words stood between me and my ideal senior year living situation: group verification. Because our group contained mixed graduation years — three rising seniors and one rising junior — we needed to request special permission from the Office of Residential Life. Rather than use whoever’s time slot was best, we would have received a new, averaged time slot.

It was a setback.

It was a death sentence.

It was completely fair.

According to Fordhamopoly, the set of guidelines for the housing selection process, the week of April 8 marked the long-anticipated room selection phase. Groups with exclusively senior members selected rooms first.

The next day was reserved for mixed year groups. Day three was solely for risng juniors, and day four for junior mixed groups.

Friday, day five, went to rising sophomores. It seems to be the most sensible way to structure what would otherwise yield a cutthroat and arbitrary process.

Not all students agree.

“I don’t like that it’s a luck thing,” Titi Fagade, GSB ’14, said of initial time-slot distribution.

Fagade will be living in a Campbell apartment of five-person singles next year. My freshman year, friends and I deemed this arrangement the “Campbell Dream.”

For those with mixed graduation years, singles in Campbell and Salice-Conley were not viable options. They were all filled after day one.

“I don’t think it’s fair to have people [seniors] go the next day because they have one junior,” Darleen Eiermann, FCRH ’14, said.

She will be in a Campbell four-person double apartment next year. Her initial group contained only three seniors. But, pursuit of the “Campbell Dream” required them to seek at least one more member, since apartment configurations in Campbell and Salice-Conley accommodate a minimum of four students. The online room selection process requires all beds in an apartment to be filled.

“There’s no other option for three seniors but to live with someone they don’t really know,” Eiermann said. Her group ended up recruiting a rising junior.

As a result, their time slots were averaged, and they were pushed back to day two of room selection.

“I think we would’ve been better off with all seniors,” Eiermann said of the process.

Regardless of how disgruntled students may become over the housing process, none can seem to think of a better system.

“I guess there’s no other way to do it,” Fagade said.

The reception of Fordhamopoly is essentially a matter of personal circumstance.

A group of seniors with a decent time slot is sure to be more in favor of Fordhamopoly than sophomores placed in post lottery. But, perhaps sophomores who secure a tower room in O’Hare will like the system more than upperclassmen who are forced to regroup.

In Fordhamopoly, seniority prevails. The general consensus is that this is Fordham’s best attempt to be fair.

I met with Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Residential Life Kimberly Russell to verify that time slot preference to older groups of uniform graduation years is not, as some students think, punishment for making friends outside of your grade.

“We want to work with the group as much as we can, and we want to make it as fair as we can,” Russell said. “But we obviously understand people have friends of different [years]. The verification component is to make sure everybody knows who everybody is.”

Fairness and helpfulness do seem to be crucial to the staff in the Office of Residential Life. Last year, Housing Operations Specialist Lori Ryan patiently verified and assigned my panicky group of seven to Arthur House after our time slot had passed and we began to dread what would unfold if we were placed in post-lottery.

“It always works out,” as Russell put it. Next year, I will be in a four-person double in Campbell with three of my teammates. Maybe the “Campbell Dream” just needed a little adjusting.

In the end, it is all a matter of personal circumstance.

If I were stuck in BCH or Walsh next year, this article would have a vastly different tone.

Anisa Arsenault, FCRH ‘14, is a communication and media studies major from  Attleboro, Mass.