Nate Ross ’28 is an elementary education major. He is the copy chief for The Flat Hat newspaper and magazine. Contact him at neross01@wm.edu
The views expressed in this piece are entirely his own and do not express the views of organizations he is apart of.
At roughly 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12, 290 students received an email from MyRoom saying they were wait-listed. They would not be allowed to participate in room selection nor be guaranteed on-campus housing for the next year. I am one of those people.
Adding to the frustration was the seemingly random designation of who received a time slot, as this determination completely ignored roommate groups. Some roommates received time slots, while others didn’t; it was random by all appearances. Furthermore, as described in the email, “If you are planning to live with a roommate who is not wait-listed, they will not be able to hold a space for you or pull you into their room while you are on the waitlist.” The way that people on the wait-list are assigned to rooms removes all choice over where and with whom they are put. At that point, why go through the process of requesting housing with a roommate if those wishes just get flat-out ignored?
The email also states that the waitlist has no ranks, and that housing assignments go randomly to the 290 unlucky students. The same Feb. 12 email provides no timeline beyond the statement that in past years all wait-listed students have been given a room by the end of July. This being said, the email protects itself from liability by stating that it cannot guarantee wait-listed students a spot on campus.
Moreover, all correspondence from Residence Life prior to the housing contract deadline said, “Residence Life does not anticipate a significant waitlist for the 2026-27 academic year.” This outlines exactly what I think ResLife wants: as many students living on campus as possible. Who wouldn’t want even more money with which to ignore student needs? All of this language saves the College of William and Mary from a guarantee of giving students more affordable housing than off-campus options, while at the same time encouraging students to remain on the waitlist.
The natural next step, in my humble opinion, was to be a Karen. So I went to the ResLife office. My question was simple: “There’s nothing I can do to control where or who I end up with, correct?” The response: “Yes.” Upon further inquiry, there is an option, but only after you get taken off the waitlist: switching rooms. However, this option requires all students involved in the move to be in agreement, which is reliant on many factors out of a student’s control. It’s plain unfair to put students in this position, especially given the promises that their housing worries would dissipate with the opening of the West Woods housing complex. Not to mention the fact that the Green and Gold Village still stands! I say put the new freshman into GGV as a rite of passage, but that is an opinion for a different time.
Almost 300 students are in an incredibly difficult position, causing anxiety and concern, and there is nothing they can do about it. They just have to sit around and wait, or pursue a more expensive off-campus option, likely requiring a longer lease. The carefully framed language of correspondence from ResLife gives you confidence that the waitlist will not be an issue, right up until you get put on it. Then it becomes a world of worry, as people scramble to figure out where they will live next school year. All students want is transparency and assistance to alleviate worries over on-campus housing, not to be left anxious for months. Is that too much to ask?
