No longer will students be going to great lengths — donning Speedo bathing suits, fleeing bears on the main green, performing naked birthday a capella — in pursuit of the first pick in the housing lottery. The first pick video competition will be replaced by a drawing this year, to take place tonight at the Housing Fair.
The Residential Council and the Office of Residential Life chose to eliminate the video competition after deciding that the old competition "just didn't really work," said ResCouncil Chair Andrew Tran '11. Associate Director of Residential Life Natalie Basil emphasized ResCouncil's role in deciding to change the competition.
"It is a student-run competition and process," Basil wrote in an e-mail to The Herald. "We will work to support the Council in implementing a first pick competition that they believe best serves the campus community and Council goals in whatever form it takes." Videos from previous years have been removed from the ResCouncil's housing lottery website.
"The important thing is: What's the purpose of the first pick competition?" Tran said. "It's not simply to hand out a free first pick. It's to generate awareness of the lottery and the lottery process several months before."
In past years, students would submit group-made videos that were meant to explain why they deserved the best room on campus. The student body would then vote on the top videos to determine the competition winner.
But Tran said that people viewed submitted videos online and then did not go to ResCouncil's housing lottery website after watching. Additionally, not many students voted in the video competition. Tran added that ResCouncil first decided to revise the competition due to controversy last year, when the group that ultimately won the competition campaigned for its video by distributing candy outside public locations on campus.
"Last year's competition ended up having an overall negative vibe in it," Tran said. "I guess it generated interest in the wrong way in the lottery."
Competition rules last year prohibited disturbing classes, endangering students, promoting substance abuse or underage drinking and violence toward the Brown community. Tran said that since campaigning was not mentioned in the rules, ResCouncil and ResLife could not "really do anything about it."
Ben Farber '12, who won the video competition two years ago, said he believed the video competition could have been maintained with revisions to the rules, such as a statement regarding the spirit of the competition, a blanket ban on campaigning or allowing any group to campaign.
"Regardless of the winning or losing, I think every group that submitted a video grew closer," Farber said. "It was a really great experience overall, regardless of the competition. The fact that that opportunity to bond is no longer there is really unfortunate."
But Tran said though last year's incident may have caused ResCouncil to reexamine the competition, it was changed in order to better promote the Housing Fair.
"The point of the competition isn't to say whoever puts in the most work gets the first pick," Tran said. "You're going to have to show up at this event where there's a ton of information about the lottery. I think that serves the purpose a lot better."
Tran also differentiated tonight's drawing from the overall housing lottery, noting that the drawing more specifically caters to rising sophomores, who get last priority in the housing lottery.
"People who know the least about the lottery are the rising sophomores," Tran said. "The rising sophomores are also going to be the most motivated to enter the competition. We're really catering this to the underclassmen."
The Housing Fair begins at 7 p.m. tonight in the Kasper Multipurpose Room. Students can enter the drawing until 8:15 p.m.
Thoughts on the change? E-mail Letters@BrownDailyHerald.com.
