If you choose to live alone
At the beginning of a semester, a student may find that he or she does not have a roommate for several reasons: 1) the student failed to select a roommate, 2) the selected roommate did not return to school, or 3) no roommate was assigned by the residence life office. During the first week of the semester, students without a roommate are expected to move in with other students who are alone in a two-person room. The fee for living in a double room alone is $500 per semester.
Roommate Changes
Changes in room or roommate during the school year are discouraged. In the middle of a semester, this will only be done in situations of serious incompatibility. For a change to be approved both roommates must first follow the steps for reconciliation. This includes (step 1) a roommate contract signing with the RA and (step 2) a formal meeting with a Residence Life Director. Residence Life Directors are available to offer assistance and to ultimately approve any changes. An administrative room change fee is charged for any room changes requested during the course of the school year.
Policy on room changes
Rationale:
1. Residence life encourages students to select a room and/or roommate for the complete academic year.
Students are urged to communicate about and resolve possible conflicts instead of moving to avoid confrontation. Remaining in the same room and with the same roommate can contribute to deepening roommate and floor relationships, and lessen the confusion associated with moving belongings.
2. Room changes have hidden costs by increasing labor for the resident assistant, resident director, residence life secretary, the accounting office and physical plant.
Therefore,
- A room change request fee of $25 will be charged for each formal written request submitted by a student. The fee is not refundable if the student cancels the request at a later time.
- Requests will be received only during the official room change request period which coincides with the transition from fall to spring semester. Requests for room changes at other times during the school year will not be granted.
- Assignments for all room changes will take into consideration seniority by classification and age, date of request, and keeping with predetermined floor classification numbers.
- Residence life reserves the right to make all final decisions about changes and allocation of available space after discussing students’ roommate situations and requests.
- The $25 fee does not apply to students who move out of campus housing mid-semester or who consolidate after roommates vacate.
- Students leaving or returning from SST or a GC program, which takes them off-campus, are also exempt.
Procedure:
- Fill out the online form to make a formal request for change at https://www.goshen.edu/campuslife/room_change/.
- After any changes are made a fee of $25 will be charged to the student account.