The housing application for continuing students opened on Monday, Feb. 9, but spring admits quickly ran into issues trying to register for Lakeside Village.
Once spring admits reached the room preferences portion of the housing application, they were only given the option to select a room configuration preference within Eaton Residential College. Lakeside did not appear in the drop down.
“I was fearful that since my application only gave me the option to choose Eaton that I wouldn’t be able to live in Lakeside, or that our chances of getting Lakeside would be lower,” said freshman spring admit Sienna Acosta.
Richard Sobaram, the associate vice president of student affairs and housing strategic initiatives, told The Hurricane that the issue was resolved on the morning of Wednesday, Feb. 11.
The Hurricane submitted a media inquiry to UM Communications asking about the potential issue on the evening of Monday, Feb. 9. UM Communications then forwarded the inquiry to Sobaram.
“When I got the inquiry from [UM Communications] that [said] spring admit students are not able to apply for Lakeside, I responded and said, ‘That’s ridiculous, of course they are. They’re not restricted, we don’t restrict them,’” Sobaram said.
The Hurricane then provided UM Communications with screenshots of a spring admit’s portal, and the issue became clear. According to Sobaram, spring admits had been listed in the system as first year students instead of continuing first year students — students who have completed one semester as UM.
Since Eaton is available to first years, spring admits were able to see it as an option in the portal. Lakeside is sophomore housing, so only continuing first year students are able to apply. Due to the technical issue, spring admits were not included in this group.
The Department of Housing and Residential Life sent an email this morning to all 458 Spring Starters.
“We understand that as a Spring 2026 starter, you may notice that only Eaton appears as an option on the room preference page,” the email read. “Please be rest assured that this does not mean you are ineligible for Lakeside Village.”
Sobaram said that his team worked with IT to resolve the issue and both Lakeside and Eaton will be visible to spring admits once room selection begins.
“So now, any spring admitted students that go in and go to the room preference page, they see the exact same thing as anybody else,” he said. “They see both Eaton and Lakeside.”
Sobaram also clarified that this technical issue should not have had any impact on forming roommate groups. However, he said that if students panicked and stopped the application process, they would need to go back and complete the application.
“Nobody who applied was denied,” Sobaram said. “They could have formed a roommate group with … kids within the spring and they would be able to get with that roommate group and they will all get to compete for Lakeside.”
Room selection appointment times will be issued on Monday, Feb. 16. University Village room selection opens on Wednesday, Feb. 18, and Eaton and Lakeside open on Friday, Feb. 20. More information is available on UM’s Housing and Residential Life webpage.