This week, many students are eagerly awaiting to find out whether they got their priority preferences. Priority applications, due last Friday, range from short essays on particular house themes to language requirements and house visits. Yet, for many, priority becomes a way for students to game the system and secure desirable housing with an otherwise undesirable draw number.

The priority system is intended as a way for students with particular interests to express them within the residential education system. A student with a strong interest in French, for example, would be given the opportunity to explore both language and culture in La Maison Francaise. Similarly, through priority, a student interested in Asian-American identity and heritage would be given the chance to engage with these topics in a residential setting by living in Okada.

Certain residences, like the Italian language-themed house, La Casa Italiana, should be commended for having legitimate priority requirements, such as a year of language. Other dorms like Lantana and Kimball should be praised for emphasizing out-of-dorm-events in lieu of routine presentations.

Needless to say, certain Stanford students will be deeply committed to their residence’s theme and will attend related dorm events. These people make the best priority residents. However, with bare bones priority application requirements, many students will dash off a 200-word essay or tour a house and then will forget about being a priority resident for the rest of the year. This is sadly the case in many dorms and houses across campus.

Stricter standards and greater accountability among priority residents should be instituted across the board. Because it’s impossible to kick someone out of housing once they’ve been accepted, this accountability must take the form of more intensive priority applications and requirements to separate those with legitimate interests in a theme from those students who are simply trying to secure good housing.

Priority should not exist as a vehicle for students to “beat the system” during their unpreferred year. We hope that in the future the priority system gets revamped, and those students with actual interest in the residence theme fairly earn their spot.