damn straight. even though i'm not from the west coast, i'd still have a 90
minute commute each way if i lived at home instead of my apartment. all the
money i saved in tuition from transferring from private to public college
is going toward my rent.

the equitable solution should be distance consideration - concentric
circular zones going out from Brookdale in 10, 20, 50, and 50+ mile
intervals. only when all students in the 50+ mile zone are provided for do
the students within 50 miles of campus become eligible, and so on. only
when an eligible student declines dorm housing should the room be up for
lottery to students in the next lower mile zone. all students outside 20
miles should be guaranteed 4 years as long as they maintain full time
enrollment.

as for "perks" for the honors kids, whatever the program, i think it should
only extend to a 50% housing stipend, a 4-year guarantee (provided they
meet the distance eligibility) contingent on maintaining a 3.0 GPA and
being full time, and most importantly, they must prove to Brookdale Council
that they are active members of 1 or more student clubs by spring of
freshman year. making honors students responsible for the other 50% of
their housing (and for most kids at 17, 18, or 19, they're still getting
money from their parents) means that they (or their parents at least) will
have some sense of ownership to the dorms and an incentive to prevent
graffiti & theft. requiring them to be active in clubs means they will be
more active overall on campus and more likely to actually use their dorm
space for living, studying, and "student life" instead of having it stay
empty. the reason why students would choose dorm over home is to have
experience in independent living and i think the clubs and the 50%
requirements goes a long way toward that goal.

-WL

At 11:49 PM 5/8/03 -0400, Arielle Kuperberg wrote:
>also i have a third point.  at this time, new york state residents are
>getting a major advantage when it comes to gettinga  dorm room- they have
>50 points added to their "score" (other ways to get points is to have a
>high gpa, high class standing, and live far away from the dorms within
>nys).  what the hell is up with that?  Out of state students (such as
>myself) pay twice as much tuition, and now we have to go and pay high
>rents too?  this is especially not understandable for students who are
>coming here from california, who are afraid and alone, and they're not
>getting into the dorms (unless of course they are a cuny honors student,
>or an athlete)
>
>case in point, my situation was as follows when i applied last year-
>i had a 3.9 gpa, was a juinior, was in the thomas hunter honors program,
>and i had a 2 hour each way commute that i had been traveling for 2 years,
>but i still got wait listed.  the only reason i got in was because of my
>personal connections- since i work at hunter, i had my boss call the
>director of the dorms.  and she had to beg her to let me in.
>
>so yeah, those are my thoughts.  responses?
>
>~Arielle Kuperberg
>Senator