Students living on campus will experience a new system upon applying for housing assignments, selecting roommates and submitting their exemption forms this semester.
The University is phasing out the paper process of applying for housing and has switched to an online-based program called the Housing Portal.
“The Housing Portal is an online system that enables students to create housing applications, create a personal profile, find and confirm roommates, select housing assignments or building assignments and select a meal plan,” Sarah Sonefeld, coordinator for contracts and assignments, said.
Students that are not residing on campus will be able to fill out their exemption form on the portal.
“The great thing about the portal is that students themselves are selecting roommates that they think they would enjoy living with during the year,” Sonefeld said. “Returning students can also pick their actual room location, which is a huge benefit.”
The old manual administrative system that has been used to this point is outdated, which is why the University chose to switch to the Housing Portal, Sonefeld said.
“The Housing Portal provides students with more control, flexibility and real-time information regarding their housing process,” she said.
There are four major ways the Housing Portal will benefit students:
– Students can access the portal to create a personalized profile. Once the profile is created, students will be provided with suggested roommate matches. From the suggestions, students can select a roommate.
– If a student already knows who they want their roommate to be, they will be able to select them in the program.
– Students will no longer be assigned a random roommate.
– Returning students will also be able to pick their actual building and room location for the upcoming school year.
Along with students having more control in their assignments and roommates, the Housing Portal will also provide the opportunity for students to complete and submit work orders and inventory condition reports online, which eliminates the need for excessive paper copies. This will allow housing to become more environmentally friendly, Sonefeld said.
For returning students, The University will begin using the program on April 8. Students will use their third party ID, which is the first part of their e-mail, and their N number to log into the system. During the week of April 8, students will also be able to log into the Housing Portal and create their profile, confirm roommates and confirm their room assignment if they want to stay in their current room.  
Any student wishing to choose a new building and room location, also known as a lottery, will be sent an e-mail the week of April 8 in regard to the day and time the student will be able to make his or her selections.
During the week of April 15, any students who are new to housing will be able to sign into the Housing Portal to select the room and building they wish to live in next year.
The Housing Portal will give students their housing information by the end of this semester, and every student will be able to go into the fall semester knowing all the information they need to know to move in.
“Students will go into the fall semester knowing who they will live with and where they will be living,” Sonefeld said. “We want students to feel happy with their housing and meal plan and the portal enables us to do so.”
Sonefeld said because this is the first semester the University is using the Housing Portal, any students with questions or concerns can contact the housing office at (985) 448- 4479 or email them at [email protected].