Sophomore students will have the option of living with friends from other colleges next year as part of the returning all-campus housing program.

Under the program, housing administrators plan to open 25 Earl Warren College apartments to 100 students from all across the campus.

“”What you’re seeing now is a lot of blending of the students at different colleges because of demand,”” said Mark Cunningham, director of Housing and Dining Services.

He said that more and more students have been forced to live at another campus than the one they are registered in because of housing shortages.

“”Under the current system, if you want to live with a student from another college, you can’t. Your only choice is to move off campus,”” Cunningham said. “”That was really the idea of all-campus housing: to allow folks the opportunity to [do that]. Now that they’ve bonded with friends ‹ particularly if not by choice but simply by us putting them together ‹ they can now have that opportunity.””

The option will be open to all second-year students who lived on campus their first year.

As part of a revised housing selection process, modified to accommodate this program, interested students apply before the normal room-selection date, Cunningham said.

“”We want to handle this first, because what it affects is equity among colleges. Since we don’t control who applies, you could have three Revelle College students and one John Muir College student,”” he said. “”So we would do this part first, then make sure that all numbers are re-corrected to make sure there’s balance, and then go into regular room selection. It’s a two-part process.””

Eleanor Roosevelt College junior Melodey Ross, who lived at Revelle her freshman year, said she felt the option would be beneficial to all students, not just those housed apart from their college.

“”Having the option is definitely nice, because I’m sure there are a lot of people who would like to live with people from a different college, if they are allowed to,”” Ross said.

The main concept behind all-campus housing came from a prior program.

“”I’d love to say that we sprouted some great new idea. In fact, the program was [used] back in 1998-99, and it’s been at Warren,”” Cunningham said. “”What happened is that the demand for housing just kept growing, growing, growing and we didn’t bring any new inventory on. It really just kind of locked up the system and we were so busy making sure we had equity among the colleges that the space just wasn’t available.””

Just as before, participating students will live at the Warren apartments. Warren students currently use only two of the four available apartment buildings. The other two buildings, each of which have more than 200 beds, house overflow from other colleges.

Warren will also provide the residential advisers, though the college uses an open application system, which allows students from the entire campus to apply for the positions.

“”We have a very thorough training process, probably the most thorough on campus. We make sure that we reach all students,”” said Claire Palmer, residential dean at Warren. “”We love the all-campus housing program and I think that the students love the program too.””

Mike Kats, an ERC freshman housed at Revelle, said he was content with his current situation.

“”As far as housing is concerned, I’m happy just knowing that I have a place to live,”” Kats said.