Changes

Based on the applications received and the needs of the neighborhood , the available spaces will be visible to all participants. Space in the neighborhood will be broken down in to into 2 categories: class year and gender. When students are called to select , they must take a space from their class year and gender. When the categories reach zero in either class year or gender students will be restricted in those categories, however everyone MUST pick a neighborhood or be assigned by Campus Life after the process is over. Picking the same neighborhood you came out of will still count as a neighborhood change, as the intent of the individual is to change neighborhoods. Therefore the penalty process applies. If there is enough space in a neighborhood for your whole group you must take those spaces or split up your group between other neighborhoods.

To discourage students from changing neighborhood every year and help to preserve neighborhood cohesion, a penalty will be imposed on students who choose to voluntarily change neighborhoods more than once during their time at Williams. This penalty would be in the form of a +.25 penalty in an individuals individual's lottery weight each time a student changed neighborhoods after the first time (no penalty would exist for students changing the first time). The +.25 penalty would be cumulative, so switching neighborhoods for a third time would result in a +.5 penalty. Campus Life would track student changes from year to year to determine the appropriate weighting penalty each year, if required. For the purposes of transitioning to this process students who had previously changed neighborhoods for any reason would not be penalized if they chose to change neighborhoods starting in 2009. In addition, if a student incurred a penalty after their second neighborhood change that penalty would be applied at the room draw that occurred in the same year as the change. However, if the student never changed neighborhoods again the penalty would not be applied to their lottery weight. If and when that student applies to change neighborhoods a third time the existing penalty would be increased by +.25 weight.