This weekend’s on-campus housing lottery revived one of GW’s lesser publicized traditions. Students with high numbers – or friends with high numbers – selected GW’s choice “real estate.” But about 300 students, estimates Residence Hall Association President Randy Bomze, found their way to the waiting list.

For rising sophomores in housing limbo, don’t worry; GW guarantees you a spot. Though you might be in limbo for a bit, rest assured you will have a place to call home next semester. The University is offering deposit refunds until June 1 – and students are bound to filter into Foggy Bottom houses and apartments.

For lottery roommate scramblers – the frantic folks forging shot-gun friendships to fill rooms – the best bet is patience and hope. Hope that your roommate will turn out to be reasonable, mature and mentally stable.

GW does have counselors who can help resolve roommate conflicts. If that doesn’t work, during Program Board’s Spring Fling, several competitions usually require a good deal of aggression and lots of physical contact. If mediation doesn’t work, try supervised, safe grudge matches.

For those who did get a room for next year, you’re in luck. If GW’s plans go as scheduled, you’ll be able to enjoy all the benefits of cable, individual phone lines and Internet connections. Though for those of you who for a fleeting moment thought this would be free, think again. Progressing into modernity will set you back another $530 or so a year.

But wait – there’s more! You may pay sky-high rents to GW (when you have some time to spare, use a calculator to figure out how much you pay per month and compare that to the rent for area apartments), but you get: community service aides (CSAs) to guard the lobby until 3 a.m., that is, if they show up; resident assistants (RAs), or as they now are dubbed, “community facilitators” (CFs), who will inspect your room monthly for compliance with all rules and regulations; and a University mail service with its own zip code moving at its own pace.

For those who thought they received the short end of the stick, get in line. Getting less than wonderful rooms and roommates is a GW rite of passage. Freshmen who had dreams of getting a single somewhere other than in Mitchell were not dwelling in reality. At least you are guaranteed housing; out there in the real world, no such guarantees exist.