On-campus apartments remain in high demand
New lottery system fair way to fill Tom Brown-Pete Wright, some say

By Chrissy Braden
Staff Reporter

TCU meets housing needs because all students have a place to live, said Roger Fisher, director of residential services. But he also said not everyone who wanted to live in the Tom Brown-Pete Wright Residential Community got a room in the facility, so the university is not doing an adequate job of addressing students’ demands for on-campus housing.

Karen Baker, associate director of residential services, said that last week 178 students picked numbers in a lottery for 59 available spaces in the Tom Brown-Pete Wright Residential Community.

Fisher said students need to upgrade their living arrangements as part of their maturation process and moving from a residence hall room to an apartment is an important part of that process.

“I don’t think that all students want to stay on campus,” he said. “But we want those who do to be able to.”

The Tom Brown-Pete Wright Residential Community was built after a 1995 market research study concluded many students wanted to live on campus longer but wanted a change from a double-occupancy room in a residence hall.

“The study told us that one of the things students wanted was privacy, so we built a facility with single bedrooms,” Fisher said. “But apparently we didn’t build enough and the demand has clearly exceeded the supply.”

He said the residential community has 31 male and 43 female four-bedroom apartments with 315 beds.

Current Tom Brown-Pete Wright Residential Community residents had priority in filling the hall next semester.

The spaces remaining after current residents reserved rooms were filled by students who picked numbers in a housing lottery.

Fisher said the lottery was limited to current campus residents who will have earned 54 credit hours by the end of this semester to control the high demand to live in the Tom Brown-Pete Wright Residential Community.

“We will always give priority to our current residents,” he said. “They’re loyal customers and have stayed with us.”

Robert Evans, a junior philosophy and psychology major, picked a number for the lottery but didn’t get a room in the Tom Brown-Pete Wright Residential Community.

Evans said he thought the lottery was fair and was not upset he didn’t get a room.

“The only thing that bothers me is that it’s not done by hours,” Evans said. “I don’t think someone with 54 hours should get priority over someone with 120.”

Fisher said priority was given to students with a minimum of only 54 hours to keep the facility from becoming a senior-only residence.

“There is concern that we should base priority on seniority,” he said. “But we don’t want Tom Brown-Pete Wright to be only seniors. Then it would vacate every year, and we’d always have a whole new crop of students coming in.”

Students who drew a lottery number and were able to reserve a room can bring in another current on-campus student as their roommate.

He said students requested a lottery this year after trying to get spaces in apartments last spring on a first-in-line basis.

“Last year students camped out, stayed up all night and missed classes to stay in line,” Fisher said. “We took a lot of flack because they felt they had to do these things in order to get an apartment.”

Baker said there is not a number on record of how many students waited in line last year because the number fluctuated so much during the day.

Courtney Jones, a junior elementary education major and Tom Brown-Pete Wright Residential Community resident, said she was lucky to move into the facility this semester when a friend invited her to live with her.

“My friend and I tried to get in last spring, but we didn’t get in because we were too far down the waiting list,” she said.

Available spaces were assigned to 59 students who randomly drew the lowest numbers, Baker said.

“Those who didn’t get spaces signed up on a waiting list in the order of their number, she said. “It’s closed now but will open again after April 7.”

Fisher said students on the waiting list who are still interested in the on-campus apartments should make sure residential services has a way of contacting them this summer.

He said sometimes when spaces open, residential services can’t get in touch with people on the waiting list and must skip over them.
“When we’re trying to fill spaces, a lot of people disappear,” he said. “It’s important to leave us information that you can be reached at.”

Fisher said there aren’t plans to build another residential community on campus because the university can’t afford the cost.

Chrissy Braden
l.c.braden@student.tcu.edu