You can not please all of the people all of the time. This old adage has been proven true once again now that housing assignments have been handed out and students are coming to terms with their destined location and roommate. As usual, Villanova has only pleased some of the people some of the time.

Most often, unhappy students pour the blame on Residence Life. They show up to hand in their room-change request forms, hopeful of a reversal of their fortunes, but they learn that not much can be done.

The assignment of housing begins with the distribution of lottery numbers. This system works best for students who check their mail regularly. The rest of us look in our mailboxes two weeks late to find that lottery numbers have already been assigned and distributed. After the initial shock and confusion, the realization sets in that we need to find a roommate, fast.

Often the problem can be solved by finding a friend who also forgot to apply for housing, and ask him or her to be your roommate. Sometimes this works even better than choosing a roommate early and then regretting your choice. This is the one time procrastination can help.

However, even if you don’t get the ideal room and the ideal roommate, it’s really not the end of the world. Just because you’re not going to live in the same dorm as some of your friends doesn’t mean you’ll never see them again. Calm down.

While students create some problems for themselves, there are also some things Residence Life can do to improve the housing situation.

First, existing dorms absolutely need to be renovated. The power rancomly goes off from time to time in Fedigan, for example, and some of the bathrooms don’t work. Many Villanova dorm rooms look they have not been changed since the 1940s.

Second, more housing needs to be built as soon as possible. Seniors currently are not guaranteed housing, and many freshmen are tripled in rooms that were built to be doubles.

Villanova presents itself as a university that grows in quality with every passing year, and yet our housing grows older, not better, each year.

If we want to attract the best students, we need to promise them they’ll have a room for four years-a room built for the correct number of residents, and with a functioning bathroom.