buzymom3

Well looks like Ridgecrest will be completely Honors next year....for those that did not get this letter emailed to them here it is in its entirety. Looks like there are quite a few changes if you read all the way to the bottom. Hope this helps...

Dear parent,

As we approach the beginning of the housing recontracting process on January 2, 2013, I’d like to invite you to participate in an online information session about recontracting and off-campus housing. Your student has also been invited to participate. The presentation will take place on November 12 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. CST. Whether your student hopes to live on or off campus next year, participants will learn helpful tips to keep in mind throughout the process. In order to log into the presentation, please go to https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?si...7A6DB74A0FBEC1. Enter your name and click on the “Log In” button. You may be prompted to download a small file or you may see a security dialog box asking you to confirm the application's digital signature. To ensure that your computer system is compatible with the software used to provide the online room for the presentation, please visit Support Portal at least 30 minutes prior to the presentation.

As you are aware, it is highly likely that the demand for housing from current campus residents will exceed the amount of space available, and as a result, some students who hope to return to campus housing next year will not be able to. If your student wishes to have the opportunity for on-campus housing in Fall 2013, s/he must submit the online housing application before the deadline. The application will be available at 8:00 a.m. on January 2, 2013. The deadline to submit the application is February 1, 2013. Priority for students to receive on-campus housing will be by application date, within academic classification. For example, a rising sophomore who applies at any time between January 2 and February 1 will have priority over a rising junior, regardless of his/her application date, and a rising junior will have priority over a rising senior. A rising sophomore who applies on January 2 will have priority over a rising sophomore who applies at any later date. All students who are first-time freshmen this year will be considered rising sophomores, regardless of how many hours they have earned. Please note, students with housing scholarships that must be used on campus will receive housing, as long as they meet all HRC application deadlines.

No deposit will be due with the initial application, which serves only to indicate interest in housing. After the February 1 deadline, we will notify all students whether they can continue with the recontracting process and select a room. At that time, the $250.00 deposit and housing contract will be due. Please be prepared to pay the housing deposit in early February. Students who do not pay the deposit by the deadline, including students with housing scholarships, will not be eligible for on-campus housing.

We anticipate some changes to our residence halls next year.

· The Honors Community will be located in Ridgecrest East, West, South and North in 2013/2014. Students who are not in the Honors College will not be eligible to return to those residence halls, but will be eligible for the Riverside and Lakeside communities. Please note, you must be in the Honors College and living in Honors Housing, or Blount or Harris Halls, at the time of room selection in order to live in Honors Housing next year.

· HRC will no longer manage any space the Bluff and may no longer have space at East Edge.

· Some Somerville rooms will be triples, offering another lower cost housing option.

· Bryant Hall will be a freshman living option for Engineering students next year.

As you and your student think about housing options for next year, please remember that a student’s assignment at the time of room selection impacts his/her housing options for next year. Students must be living in Riverside, Lakeside, Ridgecrest, or Presidential at the time of room selection in order to select a space there next year. Students living in Friedman must be in the College of Business in order to return there in the fall.

If you have questions about the recontracting process or off-campus housing, please visit our web site at Student Affairs | Housing & Residential Communities or plan to participate in the online presentation on November 12. If you are not able to participate that evening, the presentation will be archived and will be available on our web site.

Housing and Residential Communities

feenotype

Remember that you're not allowed to paste emails or other private communiques verbatim.

Here are the salient points from the letter:

The Honors Community will be located in Ridgecrest East, West, South and North in 2013/2014. Students who are not in the Honors College will not be eligible to return to those residence halls, but will be eligible for the Riverside and Lakeside communities. Please note, you must be in the Honors College and living in Honors Housing, or Blount or Harris Halls, at the time of room selection in order to live in Honors Housing next year.

· HRC will no longer manage any space the Bluff and may no longer have space at East Edge.

· Some Somerville rooms will be triples, offering another lower cost housing option.

· Bryant Hall will be a freshman living option for Engineering students next year.

buzymom3

^^^ I am so sorry...I had no idea that was a rule. I will try to amend my post to remove some of it. I was only trying to be complete.
thanks so much for the heads up!

The Student

I didn't get the letter and appreciate reading it. Thank you.

aeromom

So, I'm bumping this, because the housing info webinar was Mon evening. Did anyone else listen in? It raised quite a few more questions for me than it answered, so I'm going to call UA Housing to find out more specifics about room selection in particular. UA Housing is supposed to post the slides used during the presentation sometime/somewhere.

hokiefan

I listened to it but most didn't apply to my son. I am going to call them today also. Good luck.

UAHousing

The presentation slides can be found here: http://housing.ua.edu/pdfs/Fall_2013...ing_Slides.pdf

Hope this helps!
Janine Gascoigne

RTRMom2

If I'm reading the slides correctly, it sounds like a student (or students) who wish to stay in their current location/suite/room will have first dibs on room selection as long as they meet all the deadlines and are approved for on-campus housing (and as long as they are eligible to live in that space). Correct?

linnylu

Is this correct? Returning students apply for housing between January 2nd and February 1st.
They will then be notified beginning February 2nd if they can submit their deposit.
If they pay the deposit within a week, they are guaranteed housing.
Do you think that they have a pretty good chance? Many incoming freshmen won't have decided on Bama or made their housing deposits by mid February when this is all going on, right?

aeromom

I have no idea how this will work out.
Is Pres II going to be open by Aug 2013?
Because here's where I see pressure: they are effectively shifting the Honors half of Lakeside into Ridgecrest East (which is currently non-honors), so that's a wash in terms of # beds. But they are shifting ALL of Riverside (966 Honors beds) to Ridgecrest South South Tower, in effect. Website says Ridgecrest South (both towers) has 966 beds total, so half of them are honors at the moment and half are not. How can you cram all of Riverside Honors into half the space at Ridgecrest Honors? (Ridgecrest West is currently honors and will remain honors, so that's also a wash in terms of # beds.)
Also, kids who elect to stay in their existing dorms/rooms have priority in room selection, yes, but they still have to jump the hurdle of getting a spot in the lottery in the first place.
I'm scared for my S's chances, quite honestly....

hlsess

where will freshman be next year-non Honors?

RTRMom2

Good questions...I have a question for housing, if they come back to this thread.

Assuming a kid has signed up on Jan. 2 and paid right away for housing, is there a better chance of them getting on-campus housing if they stay in their current suite/room vs trying to move to another building or does it not matter in terms of priority selection of housing?

aeromom

Housing: On the Jan 2 application...will there be a spot to check which dorm the student wants? I ask because S is in Riverside. He's not sure what he wants to do. Does he mention his intentions (either to stay in Riverside or move to Ridgecrest) on the Jan 2 application... or not until the Feb 2nd application/deposit process does he indicate this?

UAHousing

Hi there!
I'll try to give a general answer that may help several of the above, but I'll check before I post to see what else I need to cover.

PV II
Presidential II will open August 2014, so there are no new buildings for this upcoming year.

HONORS
Honors Housing will be in all of Ridgecrest this year, which frees up Lakeside and Riverside for non-Honors spaces. To be clear though, the Honors community is NOT losing bedspaces.

RECONTRACTING
When students apply for recontracting, it's just an intent form. They won't request a certain room or pay their deposit until they have been notified that they can continue through the process. There’s a few misconceptions in the questions/posts above, so let me try to clarify.

Recontracting – Jan. 2 – Feb. 1: current students tell us whether or not they’d like to return to on-campus housing. They do not indicate room/building preferences, so there’s no way at this point for us to prioritize students who wish to return to the same room or building. (I am understanding the question that was asked?)

Early Feb.: We will notify those students who will be allowed through the process as quickly as possible. Those students will have a certain number of days to pay their deposit.
Students who MAY be allowed to return will be placed on a waitlist, but are encouraged to consider off-campus housing in order to secure their residence plans for the next year as quickly as possible.

Those who do not meet the deadline will be removed from the process in order to give the spot to a student on the waitlist. This process will go on until all the spaces for returning students have been filled (before you ask  – I have no idea what that number will be…. None of us do until we see how many students applied for recontracting)

RETURNER ROOM SELECTION
Returner Room Selection will take place in late Feb.- early March. We’ll post this schedule closer to that time. But first, students have the opportunity to “stay put” and pick the same place they currently live in. Then, they will have the opportunity to pull roommates into the space as well. Then, the students will have the opportunity to select a space within the same community, but in a different room.

After this, rising seniors will have the chance to pick any space on campus. Then, rising juniors and then rising sophomores (I think this is the part of the process that makes folks think we’ve change the order of priority for recontracting this year… even though not part hasn’t changed in several years)

So, that’s my very long-winded general info.

RTRMom2, no, a student does not have a better chance of being allowed to stay on campus by deciding to stay in their current space, because we don’t have that information during recontracting. Those students who are allowed to recontract will be able to select their own space before someone else could take it from them.

AeroMom, no, he doesn’t have to indicate where he wants to live in January. Just like freshman room selection, the database will recognize Honors status and allow those students to choose Honors or non-Honors spaces.

Whew! If you sat through that whole post, give yourself an extra spoon of stuffing on Thursday, because you just worked up an appetite.


Please let me know if you have further questions!
Janine

FortunateDad

Janine... the first post in this thread quotes the letter from housing as saying:

For example, a rising sophomore who applies at any time between January 2 and February 1 will have priority over a rising junior, regardless of his/her application date, and a rising junior will have priority over a rising senior.

That seems the opposite of what you're saying. Which one is the case?