Housing Sign-Ups
Housing Sign-Ups for Fall’06-Spring’07
The Housing Selection
Triple Rooms
Proxy Sign-Up
Ocean View Apartments
OFF-Campus Local
Cottages
Squatter’s Rights
Meal Plans
On-Campus
“Away” students
IMPORTANT DATES
March 6 - Informational mtgs. for Clark and Page residents
March 24 - Campus Cottages application deadline
March 31 - Deadline for online requests from current OFF-Campus Local students to continue OCL next year
April 1 - Deadline for students currently “away” to submit housing request
April 1 - Deadline for incoming transfers/re-applicants for Fall, ‘06 to be considered as a roommate with a continuing student
April 3 - Ocean View Apartment application deadline
April 5 - Squatter’s Rights application deadline (for on-campus and OV Apts.)
April 11,12,13 - Housing Selection event
THE HOUSING SELECTION EVENT
Students who have not reserved housing prior to the Housing Selection will select their housing during this event from April 11-13, 2006. The event will commence at the Monroe Dining Room.
Specific sign-up times (randomly selected within the three groupings below) will be distributed to students’ Westmont email in the first week of April. Sign-up times are not related to class registration sign-up times. Sign-up times indicate when a student may enter the Housing Selection after obtaining their sign-up card (example: April 12, 4:30pm). Students do not need to arrive much earlier than their specific sign-up time.
Here is the schedule for the 2006 Housing Selection event:
Next year’s Seniors April 11 4 - 6pm Tuesday
Next year’s Juniors April 12 4 - 6:30pm Wednesday
Current residents in Page & Clark G-S April 13 4 - 7pm Thursday
If you are selecting housing with a roommate(s), you may use the earliest time in your grouping to sign-up. To reserve a triple room, you must sign-up with two other roommates during the event. If you cannot attend the event in person, you may designate another student as a “proxy” to select your housing for you.
CAMPUS COTTAGES
Applications for Monroe Cottage, Cold Spring Cottage, and Clark-B Cottage are due by Friday, March 24. The Residence Life staff uses class standing and evidence of commitment to community to determine eligibility for these unique living options. If necessary, the cottages will be assigned by random selection from among the eligible groups. Applicants will be notified by Friday, March 31, whether or not they were selected. GO TO COTTAGES APPLICATION
If you are chosen to live in one of the campus cottages, you may not participate in the Housing Selection.
PROXY SIGN-UP (that is, authorizing another student to select your housing)
You may authorize another current student to select your on-campus or OFF-campus housing at the Housing Selection event by using the Proxy form. GO TO PROXY FORM
You should be in contact with your proxy to ensure he/she knows your sign-up time and housing preferences. Do not submit this form at the last minute, because a technical snafu may thwart your request. If you entered your proxy’s correct Westmont email address, your proxy will receive an email message to confirm your authorization.
What if your proxy’s sign-up time is earlier than yours? If your proxy will NOT be your roommate on campus, he/she must use your sign-up time to select your housing. If your proxy will be your roommate on campus, he/she can sign-up both of you at the earlier sign-up time.
OFF-CAMPUS LOCAL (OCL)
Living OFF-campus locally can only be requested individually; it cannot be requested as a group. Santa Barbara County limits the number of students who may live OFF-campus locally, so OCL cannot be guaranteed. You should not make any off-campus commitments until the Housing Office grants your request to live OFF-campus local (OCL). This is because the number of students who may reside OCL and commute to Westmont is limited by Santa Barbara County. Even if you are already residing OCL, you must request OCL for each semester you wish to be OFF-campus.
NEW! If you reside OCL during the spring ‘06 semester, you will have an opportunity to reserve OCL prior to the Housing Selection event. The Housing Office will attempt to contact you by email in March about this. You may also contact the Housing Office directly about it in March. The deadline for current OCL residents to reserve OFF-campus prior to the Housing Selection is March 31. After the deadline, OCL spots for current OCL residents are subject to availability at the Housing Selection in April.
If you do NOT reside OCL during the spring ‘06 semester, you may request OCL for fall ‘06 and/or spring ‘07 semester(s) at the Housing Selection. If you will be attending an off-campus “away” program in the fall ‘06, you may reserve OCL for spring ‘07 at the Housing Selection. Your proxy may request OCL for you at the Housing Selection, but only at your sign-up time.
If we reach our OCL limit during the Housing Selection, your request will be placed on a waiting list and you are urged to reserve on-campus housing (as a back-up). Westmont limits the number of students who reside OCL because the Santa Barbara County has established the limit, in part, to reduce road traffic for our residential neighbors. If you are later allowed to be OCL after reserving on-campus housing as a back-up, no cancellation fee will apply.
If your request to reside OCL is granted by Housing, you must provide your local address & phone number. The college requires this information in order to make immediate contact in the event of an emergency or other important circumstance. Sophomores are discouraged from considering OCL because sophomores are ineligible for unrestricted parking permits, and this can be especially difficult to manage.
SQUATTER’S RIGHTS (now includes Ocean View)
Current residents in most upperclass areas (i.e. Armington, Clark-C, E, Emerson, Ocean View, and Van Kampen) have the option to remain in their same room or residence hall if they “squat” prior to the Housing Selection event. Squatter’s Rights is not available to current residents in Page, Clark D, Clark G-S, or the campus cottages.
The Squatter’s Rights form will be available in RA offices. The form must be completely filled out with signatures from all roommates, except “away” students, in order to qualify. An email from an “away” students may be attached in lieu of a signature. Squatter’s Rights forms should be submitted to your hall RA Office during normal duty hours, but no later than 9pm on Wednesday, April 5.
The Squatter’s Rights Night will begin at 10pm on April 5 in the residence halls listed above. To reserve a room, the student who is the “squatter” must gather enough roommates to completely fill the room or apartment. However, those roommates are not required to be currently residing in that same residence hall. If one or more current residents in the same room want to squat the same room–but not with each other–they should contact the RD prior to the Squatter’s Rights Night to determine which roommate will stay and which will select a different room to squat.
One of the roommates choosing to squat in the residence hall should be present at 10pm on Wednesday, April 5, at which time the RD will start randomly choosing roommate groups to make their room selection.
ON-CAMPUS
If you do not participate in Squatter’s Rights, the Housing Selection, or receive a housing assignment through application to the Campus Cottages or Ocean View, come to the Housing Office the week after the Selection for assistance.
The Housing Selection is based upon individual room sign-ups, so you cannot reserve an entire suite or floor. You may sign-up individually in any available double room, but the additional space may be assigned to another student. However, the requirement to fill a triple room or apartment is based upon the experience that roommate satisfaction is increased by such mutual selections. The week following the Housing Selection, pairs or individuals are eligible to partially fill a triple room or apartment. A waiting list will be available for pairs or individuals preferring to be moved from double-occupancy rooms into triple-designated rooms or apartments.
If you reserve a room, you are obligated to rent the room for the entire semester. If you cancel your housing reservation, there is a $150 cancellation fee. Additionally, if you cancel after August 1, the refund will be pro-rated according to the schedule in the College Catalog.
Please stay in contact with your roommate(s) during the summer! If his/her plans change, you should contact the Housing Office to request an alternate roommate and have the alternate roommate call and request the change as well. Once your ‘former’ roommate confirms his/her change of plans with the Housing Office, the alternate roommate will be re-assigned to your room. If the Housing Office does not receive a written request from you, we will use the opening to make new or late assignments.
TRIPLE ROOMS
Triple rooms must be filled with three students, but only during the time of Squatter’s Rights and the Housing Selection. After the Housing Selection, pairs or individuals are eligible to select triple rooms or be placed in them. Waiting lists will be available during the Housing Selection for pairs or individuals preferring to be re-assigned from double-occupancy rooms into triple-designated rooms.
All on-campus students are charged for a double room. If you reside in a triple room with two roommates for the entire semester, each of you will receive a $220 refund at the end of the semester. There are no partial refunds.
Requests to re-designate a double room into a triple room are not granted during the Housing Selection, but may be considered afterwards. All designated triple room furniture must remain in the room because campus storage is limited, moving furniture can increase wear and damage to it, and, most importantly, because of the need to accommodate a student who is assigned to that space at a later time.
OCEAN VIEW APARTMENTS
As a result of their popularity, the Ocean View Apartments may be selected in several ways prior to the main Housing Selection event. The first is by Squatter’s Rights and the second is by application. If you are ineligible to “squat” at Ocean View because you are not a current OV resident, you may submit an online group application—three or four students—by Monday, April 3. GO TO APPLICATION
Apartments will be granted on the basis of total units among the group members, after “squatters” have been placed. Groups will be notified by Friday, April 7, whether they qualify to select their apartment on April 10. At least one member of the group should attend the Ocean View Apartment Selection Night on Monday, April 10 (10 pm). The apartments are not available for married students or students with families.
The Ocean View Apartments are two-bedroom units. Apartments #1-10 house four students and apartments #13-24 house three students. The small bedrooms in apartments #13-24 are guaranteed single rooms and cost an additional $200 per semester.
The apartments are only three miles from the campus, but Ocean View residents must arrange for their own transportation to campus. However, the Ocean View Shuttle provides service every 30 minutes on academic weekdays (7:30am-5:30pm). See Shuttle Schedule for exact times, or get a printed schedule from the driver of the regular Westmont Shuttle. There are occasional reward programs to use the Ocean View Shuttle. Also, ride sharing is encouraged to reduce the number of vehicles brought to campus. Sophomores who choose to reside at Ocean View are NOT automatically eligible for an unrestricted parking permit, but the shuttle and carpooling make it possible for sophomores to reside there.
Ocean View is staffed with a full-time resident director and several resident assistants, but it is not served by campus security. It falls under the jurisdiction of the Santa Barbara Police Department.
MEAL PLANS
All students residing in on-campus housing (excluding the Cottages and Ocean View) must be on one of the meal plans. The “UNLIMITED” meal plan (a.k.a. “21 plan”) is required for first-year students during the fall semester. The “15″ meal plan, which costs $100 less for the semester, may be requested by all returning students. The “UNLIMITED” meal plan is the most popular, allowing for convenient access to the dining commons during posted hours each week. Meal plans are requested during the Housing Selection. Requests to change a meal plan assignment must be made in writing to the Housing Office.
“AWAY” STUDENTS DURING SPRING SEMESTER (and next fall)
Westmont students “away” for the spring semester obviously do not attend the Housing Selection in person. If they have submitted housing requests for the fall ‘06 semester with an online “Housing Request” form, the Housing Office will assign them on-campus housing or OFF-campus local (OCL) for fall ‘06 and/or spring ‘07 (as indicated on their request) on their sign-up day for the Housing Selection. They may have a current student serve as their proxy at the Housing Selection, but this is generally unnecessary. If a particular room is sought by an “away” student, a proxy is helpful. If you will be “away” during the Housing Selection, and you are forming a group, you may have your group select your mutual room assignment one hour before the doors open at the Housing Selection on the earliest sign-up day among your group. Contact the Housing Office for more information.
If you will be attending an off-campus “away” program in the fall ‘06 semester, but are currently studying on campus in Santa Barbara, you should attend the Housing Selection if you hope to live OFF-campus local (OCL) for spring ‘07 semester. Or, you may submit an online “Housing Request” form after the Housing Selection event. You cannot request OCL with an online form in lieu of attending the Housing Selection, unless you qualify as a current OCL student (note the March 31 deadline above). Since OCL is in high demand and is limited, we strongly recommend you request OCL as soon as you are allowed to do so.