UCLA Housing is requiring undergraduate students to find their own roommates before signing up for on-campus or university housing for the first time this year.
Because of the change, some students said they have not been able to get into the room they preferred and others have struggled to find students to form official roommate groups.
In previous years, UCLA Housing allowed returning students to sign up for a specific room without the need to be part of a roommate group, and students would be randomly assigned roommates afterward. Now, each student receives a random time to choose a room, but only an assigned roommate leader can choose a room for an entire group.
UCLA Housing changed the application because its previous vendor in student housing software discontinued its product. Housing officials opted to use software from the company StarRez, which came with the changes in the sign-up process, said Sarah Quinn, housing services director, in an email statement.
UCLA Housing hosted an open bid process outlining the services they required in which any vendor could respond, and thought that StarRez would best serve students, Quinn said in the statement.
Residential Life and Housing Services hosted five mixers around the Hill to help students meet potential roommates throughout February and March. Other outreach efforts included hosting mixers, emails and live chat through the UCLA Housing website, Quinn said in the email statement.
Roommate groups could sign up for rooms starting March 2.
Students who do not form roommate groups can sign a two-question survey to receive an automated offer after those with roommate groups are already placed in rooms.
Some students said they’re disappointed single rooms filled up quickly because they now have to find roommates to secure housing.
“My sign up date was today, but I couldn’t get into the singles because all of them were taken,” said Jiawei Zhang, a first-year undeclared student. “I will have to keep looking for a roommate.”
Students can look at each building’s floor plans to decide which room they want to live in, but they can’t see which ones are taken until their pass is active.
“Since you couldn’t see which rooms were taken until your pass, you couldn’t plan ahead,” said Nathan Brucher, a second-year cognitive science student. “They should let you view rooms before they fill first.”
Tyler White, a third-year Iranian studies student, said the new application asked for basic information, so she found it straightforward. She said she had no problems joining her friend’s roommate group.
The deadline to make roommate groups and sign up for a specific room is Friday at 5 p.m.
There were five mixers?
I wish I was informed about them.