5 ways Stonehill can improve its housing system

Over the last week, I've been bombarded with emails about where people want to live on campus next year, like "please don't live here!" and "my roommate and I are taking this room in this hallway so DON'T TAKE IT!!" For those who don't know, our housing system works as follows:

- Everyone is given 10 merit points at the start of each year

- You can earn up to 5 for a total of up to 15 (not to exceed)

- You lose one for documentation and other bad stuff like that, and you can't gain it back

- Your activation times for housing selection are based off merit points, and then a random time slot

There may be some flaws, but you might get flaws in any system. So, here are some proposed alternatives:

1. An even more completely arbitrary system. Yep - there are loopholes. If you have enough AP and/or Stonehill credits, you can register for housing with the year above you, which is what I did last night (registered with the Rising Juniors for Sophomore Housing). It's terrific, and I didn't know about this until 2 weeks ago, but hey, I'm not complaining. So why not make things more arbitrary? Let's find some ways.

2. A completely random system. I love things that are random (and truly random, at that), so why not just break out a huge-ass calculator, fire up the random integer function, and let the TI-84 go to work?

3. Online free-for-all. Open up the housing for each year at the same time for all the students at once. They already do this for classes, and that's hectic enough, so sure, let's do it for housing as well.

4. Offline free-for-all. As much as an online royal rumble would be, imagine if it were for real! Take every student out on the quad, unlock all of the doors to every room in every residence hall, make all the students spin around on a baseball bat 10 times, and whoever gets to their room first gets it. Definitely YouTube-worthy.

5. Cage matches. Cage matches solve everything. Last one standing gets the room. Loser has to enter another cage match for their backup option. Everyone wins!

Disclaimer: At no point have I ever thought that any of these options would be feasible to select housing. Except maybe the last two. When you add physical components to stressful situations, everything becomes more intensified. Just some food for thought.