The Department of Housing and Residence Life announced last Friday that the $325 housing deposit will now be refundable until the first day of room selection, March 28, according to a status update on the HRL Facebook page.
A broadcast email later sent confirmed the announcement.
According to Cheryl Janus, director of HRL, they announced the decision to the entire residential population via email and social media as soon as they were able.
"After The Setonian's coverage two weeks ago, we were asked by our vice president to revisit this and find a middle ground, which would both reduce the number of students canceling after selecting a room but also prepare students for next year's deposit to be nonrefundable," Janus said.
Several options were considered, but according to Janus, allowing the deposit to be refundable until room selection was decided to be the most fair to students as well as the most consistent with the needs of the room selection process.
According to Janus, HRL heard from a parent, and several students reached out to Student Government Association President, Derel Stroud to express their opinions on the deposit.
The Setonian also received comment from a concerned parent regarding the deposit, but they did not return request for comment by press time.
While many students were displeased with Housing's decision to make the deposit nonrefundable, Janus said that before the recent announcement, housing applications were up.
"Even before we made the announcement that we would refund deposits before the start of room selection, we were about 100 housing applications ahead of where we were at this time last year," Janus said. "Which shows the decision to make the deposit nonrefundable did not deter students from wanting to live in our residence halls."
The housing deposit was originally made nonrefundable due to a large number of housing cancellations in previous years, Janus said.
"This deposit is only refundable until March 28th," Janus said. "For any reason thereafter, the deposit will be retained."
Ashley Duvall can be reached at ashley.duvall@student.shu.edu.
