Neighborhood Transfer Process

The Policy as of the Spring of 2009

This policy replaces the old neighborhood change process. This document is broken down in to 3 sections: Application Process, Lottery and Selection Process, and Tracking/Penalty Procedures.

Application Process

Students will be able to apply in groups of up to six, with any mixture of class years. Applications will be weighted so that class year priority determines pick order when the lottery is run. Students will be required to give up their current neighborhood assignment in order to participate in the Neighborhood Change Lottery. Essentially, if they choose to go through this process they will have no assigned neighborhood until they select one at the time of the selection process. This will allow Campus Life to determine the available spaces in each neighborhood and make any adjustments necessary for balancing. Campus Life will insure that there are enough spaces so that everyone will be able to select a neighborhood on the night of the selection process. Special requests will be dealt with at this time.

Lottery and Selection Process

Once the application process is completed and the number of participants is confirmed (a deadline for withdrawing your application will be set), the lottery will be run to determine pick order. A date and time will be set and published along with instruction about when to show up to make your pick (this will be similar to the regular neighborhood room draw). Students must attend or send a proxy.

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 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.

Tracking/Penalty Procedures

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 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.