With the fast-approaching spring season comes modifications to the room draw process in the Residential Life program at Gustavus as well as a few other changes for what Residential Life hopes is going to be a more fulfilling experience for students.

Three big changes will be taking place this semester through next year. The room draw process has been reworked, the Intentional Learning & Service (ILS) houses will be returning to their roots, and the head resident program is going through some modifications.

The change in the room draw process will have the biggest effect on students, according to Director of Residential Life Charlie Potts.

“The room draw process can be stressful. We want to take the worry out of the process or as much as we can,” Potts said.

In the past, the process was completely online. Students would fill out a number of rooms they would possibly want to live in, get a randomly assigned number for housing selection based on class year, and then get one of the rooms closest to their top choice.

“A lot of students left at the end of the school year not knowing where they would live. Some would want to be on wait lists and some just didn’t get close to what they wanted,” Potts said. “There are great advantages to using technology, but it takes away the personal element of this. Picking who you’ll live with and where you’ll live is a big thing. You lose some of the significance of that if you just punch in some numbers and wait to find out where you’re going to live.”

For that reason, the process has gotten a little more personal this year. Every student will fill out the online housing contract and get a room draw number with a system based on seniority and class year as always. However, students will then show up to Alumni Hall in April and actually pick the room they are going to live in. According to Potts, this will take away some of the mystery of where you’re going to live the next year.

“Students will have a little more choice and a little more ownership in choosing where they live. You’ll walk away in April knowing exactly where you’ll live in the fall.”

A second change in Residential Life for next year involves the ILS houses. The five houses owned by the College, located on 7^th Street, are designated for groups of four students and relate to the five core values of Gustavus: excellence, community, justice, service and faith. According to the website, “The ILS housing program is intended to create opportunities for students who wish to live, learn and act in a themed or project-oriented environment.”

A long history exists with the houses and service learning projects. However, this year the houses were treated like College View or Arbor View apartments, with no focus.

“The ILS houses are important, and there are students on campus now who are missing that. We want to do as much as we can to provide unique experiences for our students,” Potts said.

With that in mind, the ILS houses will return to their roots for next school year. This spring, students interested in living in an ILS house for next year will need to gather a group of four people and come up with an idea or project relating to one of the core values. They will need to put together a project proposal of an entire year’s worth of activities or community engagement; the house becomes the headquarters of those projects. Students must fill out applications for the ILS houses, due on March 14, 2012. Interviews will take place the week after the applications are due. Check the Residential Life website for more information and updates on an informational session date.

“There will be groups that exist that are looking for a home base who will want to apply, but I also hope there’s a group that has a brand new idea,” Potts said. “This is a big thing we’ve been missing considering all of the cool projects and ideas that come out of it. It’s a really neat way to compliment what you’re doing outside the classroom.”

The Head Resident program will also be getting reworked for next year. Starting in fall 2012, it will be called the Faculty/Administrator in Residence Program and “will focus on the intentional involvement of faculty in educational programming, social events, community activities, service projects and advising,” according to the Residential Life website.

Residential Life recognized a need for more staff and decided to add a fourth area coordinator.

“This gave us a chance to sort of rethink how we wanted to do things. It’s a neat opportunity since we were already changing what our staff would look like,” Potts said.

There will be area coordinators as always, but a fourth area coordinator will be added. Instead of the Head Resident Program, four faculty/administrators will be living and working with a specific group of people. Each of the four faculty/administrators will work with a certain year of students.

The first-year focus will be on what it really means to be a first-year on campus. They will talk about things students are wondering about or struggling with, celebrate the things they’re doing well and make sure they’re having a good transition.

The focus for sophomores will be making sure students are connected and figuring out where they are. The senior focus will be looking at what it’s been like to be a Gustie, finding meaning of the time spent at Gustavus, and looking at what students need to know moving on to life outside of college. The fourth faculty/administrator in residence will live in the Carlson International Center and advise all aspects of the Crossroads multicultural program.

“The Crossroads program has been around for a long time, but could really use some energy,” Potts said.

One hope is that this new program will help connect the buildings on campus, especially the first-year residence halls. Sohre and Pittman Halls are quite disconnected from Norelius Hall, but the first-year focus program is aiming to bring the students in these halls closer together.

“In general, we do have some changes going on. They are changes that are really good for students. We’re going to stay focused on what students want and what they need. We want to show that the Residential Life office is one that serves your best interests and not just an office that you need to deal with,” Potts said.