FEB 21, 2025 | NEWS | By Veronica Bianco
The Colorado College Housing Department offered four students a West Campus apartment after they raised concerns over this year’s housing selection process.
The move comes amidst outrage among some current sophomores over their assigned timeslots, some of which are later than current first-years, according to students and the housing department. Housing selection for the upcoming academic year is set to begin at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 20.
The Catalyst obtained an email from Sam Soren, the director of the housing department, to two current CC students, acknowledging their concerns and offering their housing group a four-person apartment for the 2025-2026 academic year.
“If both of you and the rest of your four-person group are interested, I would like to offer you a four-person apartment for the 25-26 academic year,” the email read. “I apologize for the quick turnaround, but I would like to get the group placed before selection begins.”
No one in the housing department made themselves available for comment after emails, calls, and in-person requests this morning (Soren was not in her office). Kaitlyn Griffin, the assistant director of housing operations, declined to comment through a front-desk assistant after The Catalyst left a note with questions and intent to publish.
The initial email from the students to Housing was reminiscent of widespread concerns among current sophomores: a sense that seniority has gone out the window, students allegedly buying and selling earlier time slots and the financial ramifications of different housing options.
The Colorado College housing website states in multiple places that the apartments on East and West Campus house primarily for juniors. They’re meant to provide “an atmosphere that assists students in transitioning to off-campus living.”
“General consensus is that the sophomore class is stressed about housing because they don’t have good time slots and freshmen do,” Jack Baskfield ‘27 told the Catalyst.
The students who were offered an apartment raised concerns over earlier time slots being allegedly bought and sold in an email to Soren, which the Catalyst also obtained.
“It is clear amongst the student population that time slots are being sold for up to 1,000 dollars,” they wrote. “This is not acting fairly to people of all backgrounds, as not everyone has the money to buy earlier time slots.”
Soren addressed the issue in her response: “We have made some updates to our process … that will hopefully help ensure that if someone did sell their timeslot, the buyer would be blocked from making a selection.”
Soren also acknowledged that some younger students did in fact have earlier time slots than older students.
“There may be some current first year students with early selection times than current second year students, but that was all based on the algorithm of when parts 1 & 2 were completed and their class standing,” she wrote.
She concluded the email by offering them an apartment, thereby exempting them from the selection process.
Not every student who complained was afforded the same treatment.
Massimo Flumian ‘27 told the Catalyst that he went to the housing office in person three times to ask questions and raise concerns. He and his intended roommates were not offered an apartment.
Flumian was one of multiple students who said they went in-person to the office after time slots were assigned and described a tense environment inside.
“It’s like what a day on Wall Street is like,” one said. “No one’s having a good time, everyone’s upset, no one’s winning, and everyone’s kinda just wishing they were doing something else.”
Another sophomore, Lulu Kahn, went to the student trustee for help.
She wrote in an email that the housing system’s “failures” have prompted her and other students to seriously consider transferring to other institutions, citing the financial ramifications of having to pay for a full meal plan for a third consecutive year.”
The “inability to secure appropriate housing, the financial strain, and the overall disregard for student concerns have made it clear that CC is not prioritizing student success in this area,” she wrote.
Luisa DiGiano ‘27 echoed those concerns in a similar email to the housing departments.
“Many of my fellow students have expressed concerns with being forced to pay for another year of the full meal plan, unsure whether they could continue to attend this school if they were forced to pay for the full meal plan,” DiGiano wrote.
Kahn also emailed Interim President Manya Whitaker with the same sentiments. Whitaker’s response began, “As I catch up on emails for the day, I am sharing this response with students.”
Whitaker went on to say that she was hearing from many students and parents who were expressing both frustrations and happiness with the housing department.
“There is no single process that will result in over 2000 students being pleased with their selection slot,” her email read.
She concluded by thanking Kahn for her feedback.
The Catalyst called Whitaker’s office for comment and left a message.
Colorado College is no stranger to housing controversy. Last year, software issues forced the housing department to redo the process after some students had already selected housing. Two years ago, some rising sophomores got earlier time slots than rising juniors, which prompted outrage across campus.
This is a developing story and will be updated.