Let me make this clear: I’m upset I waited for four hours, got a sunburn, and had to miss two classes to get a room next year, not the dorm assignment itself. 

With the temperature reaching a high of 86 degrees, almost every current first-year student or upperclassman hoping for a room in one of the residence halls was in line for what FAU calls Fill A Suite. 

The new initiative is a process where students arrive with who they want to room with next year to get assigned a room/suite. This caused many students to panic, posting on Snapchat or Facebook, desperately trying to find a fourth and/or third roommate to guarantee a room.

However, some students, such as myself, didn’t need this requirement as they got a room with less than four people.

This is the first year that FAU has offered Fill A Suite and Media Relations said that the response for the program was “overwhelming.” 

Joshua Glanzer, an FAU spokesperson, said, “Students should plan for recontracting for upcoming fall semesters in November of every year.” 

But I want to know why this can’t be done online like freshman housing. Housing should have the four roommates put their names on an online form, and then show up with an appointment to Nations MPR. There, they can confirm the selection and guarantee their room assignment. 

When looking online at other Florida universities, UCF walks students through the process before they begin their housing selection, completely online. The only difference is that housing isn’t immediately guaranteed and you can’t choose your roommates. 

FSU also does their housing entirely online, with selecting a room during specific timeslots based on completed credit hours, with the ability to roommate match with students that are currently living on campus.  

I would be less stressed out if I knew that FAU had enough room for housing. The overflow of housing applicants — that’s led approximately 100 students to live in Fairfield Inn next year — only puts more pressure on students to sign up immediately.