Shippensburg University’s selection process for on-campus housing suffered severe technical hiccups, leaving many students irate.
The selection initially opened on Feb. 13, but server overload caused the process to shut down partway through and was reopened on Feb. 22.
As students tried to log on to the housing portal at 10 a.m. on Feb. 13 to pick their rooms for next year, a majority were welcomed by nothing but a loading screen. Many tried refreshing the page or opening it on another device, but the loading screen was all that the portal would show for over two hours, leaving students in the dark about what was wrong.
“I essentially gave up my entire snow day to sit in my room to try and select a room,” sophomore Daniel McCleary said. An email was finally sent out to students by SU News around 12:30 p.m., saying housing selection would be shut down for the rest of the day, with no word of when it would reopen.
Three days later, the campus housing department sent out an update, saying that 15% of students who tried selecting a room in the first period were able to, and these selections would be honored. The remaining 85% would be randomly assigned a time slot between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Feb. 22 to log in and choose a room.
Even before times were assigned, students saw this as an unfair solution. “To turn housing selection into something akin to a lottery was not a good choice. I really hope they come up with a more equitable solution for housing, one that is fair for all students,” said McCleary.
The selection on Feb. 22 saw no technical issues but left many students who hoped for a dorm with separate bedrooms stuck in B Units, with all the C, E and F Units reportedly being taken by around 11 a.m.
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