The new housing point system that is set for Fall 2019 will not only be affecting individual students, but also the clubs and organizations at Pace. The old system allowed students to gain housing points by swiping into events and being involved in clubs on campus, while the new system is solely based on GPA and credits completed, which gives no reward for students who participate in clubs or sports.

Students who were in need of extra points could go to residence hall and other events on campus to gain housing priority. Without the incentive of points, organizations on campus could face a lower attendance at their events than what they’ve had in the past. Nicolle Lombardi, the president of Pride at Pace, a club that celebrates the LGBTQA community, feels there is now less motivation for students to attend events on campus. 

“Housing points gave students more of an incentive to participate in on campus events,” Lombardi said. “Now that it doesn’t count, students will become lazy because they feel they don’t need to participate. I’m definitely nervous about it because there will be less participation, the housing points definitely were a good incentive to raise participation.”

Events now have to draw students in solely based on what is being offered. Marketing events to students will now become a much bigger task for clubs to do in order to appeal to more people. 

“I feel as though we’ll focus more on marketing in general because it was easier to get attendance because of the housing points, so there wasn’t as much of an emphasis on marketing,” Lombardi said. “Now there will definitely be a huge focus.” 

Resident Assistant (RA) Sabrina Sanchez will also have to plan and market her events more to get residents to attend.

“We’ve been asking people more about what they want to do for events- we’ve been emailing students and making announcements over the loudspeakers,” Sanchez, a sophomore, said. “We’ve also been using things like food to get people to come.

“I understand the change, because a lot of upperclassmen were not getting into where they wanted to, but I don’t agree with it,” she said. “If you’re actively involved in activities on campus, you should get priority.”

Students like sophomore Shelby Cherwek will need to be enticed with something as good as housing points in order to go to events on campus.

“Last year a lot of the reasons I went to some events were only for housing points,” Cherwek said. “I would go to events now to get free things like t-shirts.”