As enrollment continues to rise and more freshmen are required to live in residence halls, University Housing changed its sign-up process.
University Housing introduced a new lottery-based system for returning residents to sign up for residence hall assignments for the 2026-27 school year.
The new process, which began Oct. 20, replaces the traditional first-come, first-served housing sign-up system. Instead, students who indicate interest in returning to University Housing will now be entered into a randomized lottery to determine who receives a self-assignment time slot to select their rooms.
Current residents who indicate interest in returning to University Housing but do not receive a time slot from the lottery will be placed on a waiting list.
The change was designed to make the housing sign-up process more accessible, Chris Axtman-Barker, associate director of communications and marketing for University Housing, wrote in an email to The Daily Illini.
“We always want to offer the smoothest process that we can for students to resign,” Axtman-Barker wrote. “In our efforts to do that, we have remade the Housing Sign-Up process to make it more equitable and easier for our residents.”
The new process includes three phases: interest, roommates and self-assignment.
During the interest phase, which ran from Oct. 20-26, current residents could log into their MyHousing Contract Portal to indicate their intent to return to University Housing. Students who did not indicate interest before the deadline were automatically placed on a waitlist.
The roommate phase, which ran from Oct. 27 to Sunday, was optional. It allowed returning residents to declare their roommate, if they chose to.
Finally, the self-assignment phase will begin Monday. University Housing will send assigned time slots to residents via email on Wednesday.
Residents will be able to select their rooms beginning on Monday through Nov. 16.
Students are also able to cancel their contracts within 14 days to avoid a contract cancellation fee.
Despite the new lottery system, Axtman-Barker wrote that the number of returning students is expected to remain consistent with last year.
At a Senate Executive Committee meeting on Oct. 27, Danita M. Brown Young, vice chancellor for student affairs, said that as of Oct. 20 — just days after renewals opened — more than 2,100 students had already committed to on-campus housing for next year.
“I know that (housing) is a pressure point because when I met with the dean of engineering today … he had voiced that concern that he is hearing that from his students,” Brown Young said. “They were really worried about where they could live next year because they know that enrollment continues to grow, and they want to stay on campus.”
To accommodate the University’s growing student population, plans are underway to expand on-campus housing.
The Taft-Van Doren residence halls are set to be replaced by a new 600 to 800-bed residence hall with a 300-seat dining facility, scheduled for completion by Fall 2029.
For some students, however, the timing of the change added stress to an already busy part of the semester.
Jasmina Ostrowski, junior in LAS and current Bousfield Hall resident, commented on the timing of the notice. She said it came in the middle of midterms and forced a last-minute reconsideration of her housing plans.
“I just have so much going on … so being able to keep my room and be in University housing for one more year, I thought would be the most convenient thing to do,” Ostrowski said. “Having that opportunity taken away is just really frustrating.”
After learning about the lottery system, Ostrowski reached out to apartment complexes as a backup option, but said scheduling a leasing appointment proved difficult.
Most leasing offices were already booked, Ostrowski said, with appointment openings not available until December.
In response to concerns like these, Axtman-Barker wrote that the lottery-based sign-up will likely remain in place in future years.
“We plan to use this process going forward,” Axtman-Barker wrote. “However, we are always listening to student feedback. If we hear from students that our new Housing Sign-Up process is not working for them, we will make changes.”
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