“List seven words that people use to describe you.” Every student seeking to live on campus in 2013-2014 will have to respond to this request, along with other personality-probing questions, through the new roommate selection website that will be installed this month.
The website, designed by the company Lifetopia, presents a Facebook-esque atmosphere, a Pepperdine-blue interface and bundles of information necessary for students to select both a room and a roommate for next year.
“Serving the students is the biggest piece [about this new website] — giving as many ways as we can to inform the students,” said Brandon Farmer, assistant director of HRL. “It’s a hard job to be able to match people up who can live together and who have little to minimum issues. We’re trying to put the onus on the students.”
The site becomes live Feb. 18 for incoming seniors and then becomes accessible for incoming juniors the following week, Farmer said. Incoming sophomores not studying abroad will select rooms and roommates the week of April 18.
In the weeks prior to those dates, students will be able to create a profile, explore housing options and “shop” for potential roommates by username, lifestyle habits or even music preferences. The site provides blueprints of each living area, as well as a bird’s eye view of the living area in relation to the ocean and window views for every single room.
“I’m a firm believer in choice,” Associate Dean of Students Brian Dawson said. “We should be giving you all the information — the pictures, the prices and letting you decide. If we can help educate people in a rental process and give them choices, that’s a win-win for me.”
This new method will replace the manual system of roommate selection organized by HRL in previous years.
“Last year, we had a lottery,” Dawson said. “This year, you can shop around. It’s first-come, first-served, and we will do a seniority factor. If you’ve got a block of four roommates, you’ll go first. It’s been described to me that it’s like picking classes.”
Another amenity provided by the new system is the ability to link Lifetopia profiles with Facebook. In addition, after students explore various roommate options, they can request and accept roommate options and sign housing contracts via the site, which forwards a record of the activity to the student’s preferred email account.
HRL will select and place RAs and SLAs in their positions before the site becomes live — another change from last year.
This new method may result in “some interesting side effects that we don’t know about,” Dawson said. For instance, incoming freshmen will be able to research each hall’s RA-and-SLA triad before they select rooms.
“I hope there is some grace from students as we go through [the new process], but at the same time I want them to expect a good product because that’s what we say we’re going to provide,” Farmer said. “I think the students will have a good experience with it.”
The new website is not the only change implemented by HRL for next year.
Sophomore housing will be divided between four themed houses on Greek Row and Towers, which will not be themed, Farmer said. The George Page apartments will now be the least expensive option for juniors and seniors, followed by the apartments in Lovernich and then Drescher. In an attempt to create competitive pricing with off-campus living areas, HRL will once again be providing discounts for upperclassmen.
“If you have lived on campus, including international programs, for four semesters, you get a 10 percent discount, and if you’ve lived on campus for six semesters, you get 20 percent,” Dawson said. “You can pick where you want to go and apply your discount to it.”
Although future housing improvements also include a plan to remodel freshman halls and apartments, a timelier enhancement occurring next semester is the placement of new furniture in Lovernich, Drescher and the freshman halls.
“We’d like students to stay on campus as long as possible, and we’ve seen that students who live on campus have higher GPAs, more connections with faculty and staff, and higher satisfaction with what is going on on campus,” Dawson said.
Students interested in pursuing these opportunities, as well as experiencing the aforementioned HRL transformations, can commence with the creation of their Lifetopia profiles beginning next week. From there, they can research, explore, ponder and select their living arrangement for next year.
When asked what excites him most about the new roommate selection process, Dawson said that students will truly have a freedom of choice.
“It’s bringing technology and choice together so students can have all the information at their fingertips and be able to hit ‘Yes, this is where I want to live next year.’”
