The system of selecting students for dormitory rooms has changed to a lottery system. As of last semester, it no longer takes authorized English tests scores and previous semester grades into consideration.

The change was made because the Seoul Metropolitan Council and the previous Student Council (Muhandongnyeok) suggested improving the selection system. Therefore, the dormitory faculty tried to gather students’ opinions about ways of improving the system through an online survey. It was publicized through text messages, as well as notices on UOS website, Facebook and through the UOS’ online community, Gwangjang.

It was conducted from Oct. 15 to 22, 2012 and was for both undergraduates and graduates but only about 386 UOS students participated in the survey. It is regretful that not many students participated in showing their opinions on it. According to the results, more than half of the students (53 percent) were dissatisfied with the system based on grades. However, only 130 students (33 percent) of them agreed on changing it into a lottery system. Regarding the qualification of certain grades, 93 percent of them agreed.

The dormitory faculty also held a public hearing on Oct. 31. Students were invited to the panel and took part in the discussion, but their participation rate was low. After this process, on Nov. 8, the dormitory faculty announced on UOS website that the selection process would be changed in 2013. They notified students that selections would be made through an open lottery and the only limitation is that students must have a minimum grade of 3.5. Plus, lower income families will be classified as the subjects of social regard and be given a certain amount of allocated openings.

Some UOS students were curious about the relationship between the survey results and the change made. For these students, the dormitory faculty posted answers to some of the questions from them on Nov. 12, and explained some disputable facts. It seems that taking the advice of the Seoul Metropolitan Council and choosing the lottery system were done in order to get funds allocated in the budget for expanding the dormitory building from the Council.

The first open lottery took place in Student Dormitory on Jan. 21, 2013. After the lottery, students who won were verified to see if they met the minimum grade requirement. Then, the list was released on the website the next day. Some students, who had almost the perfect grade to be selected but did not win the lottery, became depressed.