Everything you wanted to know about the Milligan Village lottery.
By: Hannah Austin and Sydney Franklin
Milligan’s quest to build modern apartment-like dormitories, termed collectively as the “Milligan Village,” began in 2012. With only a few of these buildings planned to be completed by the fall of 2013, there was competition and controversy surrounding who would be selected to live there.
Kate Anderson, director of residence life and housing, Mark Fox, vice president for student development, and the 2012-2013 resident directors decided on a system of tiers to fairly select students. President Greer’s cabinet approved the process.
Groups of applicants were drawn from tiers with the first tier including groups with all five seniors. The second tier included three to four seniors, and the last tier included zero to two seniors. Students had to have lived on campus for at least one academic school year and be a junior or senior in class standing to qualify. All groups from the first tier were selected — meaning ten suites of all male and female seniors were selected to live in the Village.
Traditionally, when evaluating applications for upperclassmen housing, grades were taken into consideration. This year, for all upperclassmen housing including Williams, Kegley, and Quillen Halls and the new Village, hours were the central factor in determining who was selected.
“A lot came down to hours, we wanted to differentiate between juniors and seniors,” said Anderson. “There are majors more difficult than others and GPA definitely plays a part into that. We wanted it to be fair for all students to have a chance.”
The few juniors that were selected to live in the Village were chosen from the second tier. Two out of six female groups were drawn from the second tier to complete women’s housing. In other words, five apartments consist of all senior girls while two apartments have one or more junior girls.
Other juniors living in the Village are students signed up for the Living and Learning Communities or are roommates of Village resident assistants.
Village residents are held to the same conduct standards as other students. Visitation hours for males and females will be the most lenient on campus, with five days a week of open dorms including Sunday. There is still a zero-tolerance policy for alcohol violation. Students breaking conduct guidelines will meet with Kate Anderson and Mark Fox and be defaulted to Hart Hall, Sutton Hall or Webb Hall if necessary.
Like other halls, the same procedure will take place for room inspections in the Village with monthly health and safety checks. Resident assistants will be prohibited to search thoroughly, but resident directors and staff have the authority to search refrigerators and drawers.
“We can have surprise searches or unannounced searches,” said Anderson. “That can happen up to once a semester.”
For students that may be stressed with housing, Anderson understands and expects issues.
“Housing is always a big deal every spring,” said Anderson. “Just be patient, everyone is going to have a room.”
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