At University of Dayton it is a well-known fact that Aviate and the path point system are universally hated. For those of you who don’t know what the path point system is let me break it down for you. Instead of the lottery system UD used to have, we now decide housing based on path points. You get path points by going to different events on campus. These events include things such as different lectures, multicultural affairs, sexual assault training, and floor meetings. When you apply for housing they total up your groups path points and then base your priority on your groups total or average depending on your year.
Students at UD HATE this method. They hate having to go to these events. They hate that if one person in the group doesn’t have a lot of path points your group is screwed. They hate Aviate, the program that runs housing. They just hate everything about it. As housing registration was coming up that’s all you heard when walking around campus and as housing assignments are approaching I’m sure we’ll hear all about it again. Students are in almost unanimous agreement that path points should be abolished. I’m not so sure.
Yes, path points are annoying. No, I don’t enjoy going to the majority of the events. Yes, they cause me stress too. But no, I don’t think we should get rid of them. Whenever I hear students talk about their hatred for path points they never have a better solution. It’s all about how stupid path points are.
Don’t get me wrong I don’t like going to the events, but I like that I have control over where I will live next year. I know that if I get a ton of path points I will most likely be living where my friends and I want to. When talking to my friends at schools like DePaul, Notre Dame, Case Western, Purdue, University of Chicago, and Loyola I found out that they all have a lottery system. Where you live depends totally on the number you and your group get and the credit hours you have. If none of you have an early number than you will get stuck living in whatever housing is leftover. That sounds worse to me than going to boring events and being able to control your living situation. I’d rather depend on myself and my friends than on luck.
We just had elections for student government. Almost every platform included abolishing Aviate or drastic reforms to it. But when talking to these candidates they did not give what they were going to replace path points with. Most students here are the same way. They don’t want path points, but they don’t have an alternative.
This reminds me of high school when people wanted to abolish common core, but had nothing to replace it with. It even reminds me of early arguments on repealing Obamacare, but having nothing to take its place. While I acknowledge that there are people who have thought of alternatives to these programs, I find that the majority of people I talk to don’t. Once I hear some good alternatives to the path point system my opinion might change, but as of now I am a supporter of the system.
