Room Assignment Process

When the office of Residence Life and Housing receives a first-year student’s or transfer student’s Housing Application/ Contract and his/her Housing Deposit, the staff will process the information and put the student in a pool of students who also will be living on-campus and are waiting for placement. We hope to complete the housing placement process by mid-July of each year (and then on a consistent basis after mid-July).

The questions on the Housing Application/Contract about educational goal/major, extracurricular preferences, living habits, and additional requests help Housing staff to place students with roommate(s) who may be the best fit. Please know that, though helpful, answers to these questions are not perfect measures by which we can choose roommate(s) for students. We do our best to use the information provided to create a good roommate match!

If a student requests a specific person as a roommate, we will honor that request as we are able. The Housing office needs to receive both students’ Housing Applications/Contracts and Housing Deposits before the students will be placed together in housing.

Once we have placed students in housing, we send out a letter that indicates the students’ mailbox (CPO) number, phantom phone number, living area placement, and roommate information. If a student has submitted his/her Housing Application/Contract and Housing Deposit before mid-July, he/she will most likely receive this information around mid-July.

If you have any questions about the room assignment process or your living area placement, please contact the Residence Life and Housing Office at 773-244-5555.

Room Changes

Can I request to change rooms/living areas?
Residence Life values the learning experience that living with someone else, often someone who is different from you, provides. Unless you need to change rooms for medical reasons or some unforeseen extenuating circumstance, once we have assigned you a room, we do not allow you to change rooms until the second semester. If your reason for wanting to change rooms falls within one of those exceptions, please talk with your RA, RD, or housing to discuss the possibility of changing rooms/living areas. If all parties involved agree to a move, there is the possibility it may be allowed during the academic year; please see your RA, RD or housing to discuss this possibility.

Are you having a roommate conflict?
If you are having conflict with your roommate, please first try to talk to your roommate about the issue(s). If the conflict persists after you have talked directly with your roommate, please talk with your RA. Your RA, and possibly later the RD, will help guide you in how to deal with the conflict and will facilitate as mediator if necessary. At times, the Director of Residence Life and Housing and/or the Director of Student Care may also be involved in roommate conflict mediation. After mediation has occurred between you and your roommate through your RA, RD, and any other necessary parties and the conflict is still not resolved, you may discuss with your RA and RD the possibility of a room change before the end of the semester.

If I have been approved to change rooms/living areas, how do I go about this process?
If you have been approved to change rooms, you will need to fill out a Room Change Contract. To where you move is dependent on available space and the approval of the new roommate(s), RA, and RD. The Room Change Contract requires the signatures of your former roommate(s) and future roommate(s) as well as your former and future RA and RD. If you will be moving into a new room for the spring semester, you will need to be checked out of your old room and into your new one before Christmas break in December.