More than 330 residents selected their rooms for next year in Tusculum College’s first ever Housing Lottery on March 2. The special event took on a celebration atmosphere as in addition to housing assignments several students took away prizes such as DVD players and a Wii game system.
Attendees included not only students who were participating in the housing lottery, but also a number of commuting students who joined the group for dinner and hoped for a chance of winning one of the many prizes.
The new housing lottery was made possible by the change to a flat rate housing fee that goes into effect next year and has made the on-campus apartments an extremely popular and now, more affordable option. Juniors and seniors received the opportunity to select first, followed by upcoming sophomores. The Student Government Association recently voted to have future housing lottery processes observe only year of classification (senior, junior, sophomore), and the College has agreed to put this policy into place next year agreeing that those who have made the longest commitment to Tusculum College have earned their opportunity for the best the College has to offer.
The Grand Prizes included a Wii gaming system and a 26” flat screen television, each of which were raffled off in a random drawing of those 311 students who were eligible for participation. Students earned eligibility by maintaining their “Passports” throughout the process from the Clearinghouse in January through Advising and Registration in February throughout to the Lottery. The Clearinghouse was the first event of the series where students picked up their Passports for the first time, and were given an Orientation of the one-stop events to help students prepare for the 2009-2010 academic year. Students then had to visit their academic advisors about what courses they should take in the upcoming academic year. Registration for classes then took place in February.
