What a difference a year makes.

During move-in week last year, more than 200 incoming UA students who were expecting to make an easy transition into their dorm rooms were forced to spend days, weeks, or even months in hotels, dorm lounges and resident assistants' rooms.

While Residence Life deserved criticism at the time, they deserve credit today for finding an appropriate solution to the problem and ensuring that people expecting to live in dorm rooms this year actually got to live there.

The enacted a controversial policy requiring students who had lived in a dorm for four semesters to find residence elsewhere, giving incoming freshmen top priority. It also practiced a more rigid application process by no longer guaranteeing on-campus housing to students who filed past the deadline.

The results have been dramatic, as there are now more unoccupied dorm spaces than misplaced students a year ago. While this may be considered a problem in itself, the fact is that it is better to have dorm space and not need it than to need dorm space and not have it. And it does appear that at least some of the now-empty spaces will be filled before long.

It is true that other circumstances like a smaller-than-expected freshman class have helped to mold the current on-campus situation.

The new situation, though, does bring about at least one new problem. Residence Life stands to lose about $250,000 because of the empty spaces. And although they are trying to fill empty spaces and offer current residents upgrades to single or double rooms, much of this shortfall will likely remain. But officials have a year to figure out how to solve this problem, and we're confident they can.

And with more than 700 new dorm rooms opening in 2003, and the future of on-campus housing is looking positive for the first time in a long while. For that, the Wildcat gives Residence Life its well-earned props.