The First Rule of Room Draw is....

You don't talk about Room Draw.

Unless you're in Room Draw. In which case, God help us all.

Now, you might be wondering why this is such a big deal. I mean, the idea is pretty simple. People get a random priority number, you pull a room and roommate, some special rules about special petitions and stuff. Seems like a simple enough procedure. They even help us out by providing white boards of the dorms so people can lay claim to a room and work things out.

You see, at Harvey Mudd, you're guaranteed housing all four (or five, but usually four) years that you attend. Wait, all four years? You mean it's not just freshmen and then they kick you out into the real world to find an apartment? Yes, about 98% of all students live on campus all their years at Harvey Mudd. So, it's literally one huge community. Walk down the hall and you'll pass by classmates' doors, and upperclassmen doors, and freshman doors, and your best friend's door, and you get the idea. Everyone lives on campus.

The upside to this is everyone can get to know each other. Homework help is just a door or dorm away. It's quite common to randomly pass someone's room and suck them into your dinner posse. So, pretty much one giant community.

The downside includes Room Draw.

Since everyone lives on campus, that means there's almost exactly the number of rooms as students. So, chances are that people won't get the room they want and have to take whatever is left. Also, since you know everyone, you don't want to be a jerk (Rule #1: Don't be a jackass) and mess up other people's plans for their happy little suite living with their friends, but at the same time you want a certain room so you can be with your friends and also happy about noise, traffic, accessibility to certain things like the lounge or stairs. Also, if you've ever done a group project, you know how much of a hassle it can be to get a group of four, five, or six to agree on anything. Now try getting a campus of 700 to agree on optimal rooming situations. Not happening.

This leads to certain interesting emergent organizations. For example, there are those who try to machine. This term refers to a massive large-scale organization of students who work with each other to ensure they as a group get what they want. South Dorm is famous for machining the entire dorm such that only Southies can live in their almost 100% single occupant room dorm. Typically, a dorm to some extent machines itself to try and get those who are part of the dorm community to get the best situations possible. Also, there are special suites that have been formed to ensure that a group of Sophomores can live in their desired dorm. Time Suck in East is an example of this, a suite that goes to selected Sophomores that sometimes is designed to keep Sophomores in the dorm. But, they also are selected so that they will put on events such as movies and parties for the dorm to enjoy, i.e. be a Time Suck and help relieve stress. These are typically a big issue, and heaven forbid you pull yourself into that suite because the entire dorm is expecting that suite to be their selected Sophomores.

This also leads to a lot of drama. I mentioned machining. What happens if you can't machine everyone in? I mean, there's a limited number of rooms, what if you have too many? Well, sometimes people get burned and machined out of the community. Back many years ago, this happened to a group of students, and they then formed Suite Vengeance in other dorms. Suite Betrayal spawned since there were too many trying to get into East a few years ago, so they voluntarily left for another dorm. Also, certain rooms are preferred over others. Singles, for example, are preferred over doubles. More privacy and less of your roommate, love them as much as you do, having their alarm go off while you're sleeping because they have a 8am class on the days you start at 11am. Trust me, you'll want those 3 extra hours of sleep. Sontag is a highly coveted dorm because it's the newest dorm on campus and has a kitchen in every suite. So, living there means you can get off the meal plan and cook for yourselves. Ironically, Sontag also has the smallest singles, but there is a high density of singles, and the doubles are HUGE. So, typically, Sontag is almost completely Seniors and Freshmen.

By the way, Freshman are distributed among all the dorms so there isn't a Freshman dorm at Harvey Mudd. All dorms are open to all classes and both genders, although you can petition for a single-sex suite and currently you cannot room in a double with a roommate of the opposite sex.

So, in the end, not everyone is happy. Plus, the whole random number thing tends to be weird and annoying, giving to some the grace and option of whatever room they want and forcing others to grovel and make deals just to ensure they have secured a room. For example, one of my friends hasn't gotten a number higher than 100 out of 170 for the past two years. There's random numbers for you.

Oh, and did I forget to mention there usually ends up being a wait list? Yup, there is always a few fewer rooms than students in Room Draw. Don't worry, though, because students go on leave of absences or study abroad, so it's an extremely good chance you'll have a room during the year. It just can be very uncomfortable not having a spot locked down in the dorm and with the friends you want. But, you will have a room.

Thus, Room Draw can be a pain. A necessary pain, but still a major pain with lots of planning, drama, reconciling, loss of sleep, nerves, the whole bit. And since it leaves a bitter taste in some mouths, plus the fact that some of the machine fanatics would never sleep during the rest of the year, it's a rule that you DON'T TALK ABOUT ROOM DRAW.

You've been warned.

By the way, numbers for Room Draw came out last week, so room Draw has begun its terrible reign over the campus. Pray for us, and our souls should we not make it.