SNHU’s Housing Process and Campus Transition for Fall

Joshua Dinapoli Staff Writer

Anticipating a total return, SNHU is now faced with the enormous undertaking of transitioning a portion of its virtual student body onto campus. Perhaps the biggest obstacle in this process is ensuring housing for as many students as possible.

Residence Life initiated this process on April 5. First, students need to sign a license agreement to start the procedure, followed by roommate matching, which runs from April 14- 28. After being grouped according to their number of credits, housing selection will run from May 17-21 and then again from May 24-28.

“We do think there is merit to students that have more experience in college to have more access,” stated Shannon Brown, Director of Residence Life, explaining why the college choose to structure housing priority based on credits. Every student is placed into a cluster that determines their order in the selection process. The lower range of numbers the cluster is in, the higher the priority. Each cluster is matched with a range of class credits, which is detailed in a table listed in the initial email sent by housing. Ideally, those with more credits will get to choose their accommodation first. When students match with roommates, they are placed into a group where the average of their priority numbers will determine their group’s placement in the selection process.

This system has not been without error as some students have reported that their number of credits have been inconsistent with their priority. Housing has acknowledged this in an email sent out stating that they are “working closely with our campus partners to confirm each student’s earned credits and any errors will be fixed in the housing system as soon as possible. We will be in touch when all numbers have been confirmed.” While innovation scholars are mainly located at the bottom cohort, they will still select housing before incoming first-years who will instead have housing randomly selected for them in June.

With these upcoming semesters, SNHU is expected to welcome more students than ever on campus for the first time, as both incoming first-years and sophomores will be having their first experience of life on campus. “There is a shared sentiment; we are mindful of innovation scholars, newness on campus and experience as SNHU students,” explained Brown, recognizing that many students will have to adjust their college experience completely.

However, this sentiment is not only reserved for the lowerclassmen. “No matter who comes to campus, everyone is coming off-year and half of a different life...there will be a transition for everyone.” Brown is personally working with the COVID-19 Campus Operation Team, coordinated by Interim Dean of Students Meagan Sage and Associate Director of Student Involvement Colleen Lubin to see how first-time students can get used to a radically different living experience. For innovation scholars, one of these events is the First Days program. While the program is still in the preliminary stages, it will hopefully get students accustomed to the layout of the campus and encourage further social engagement.

After students filled out their license agreement, they were sent an email outlining the significant policies. Brown oversaw its writing and made clear on some of its policies, such as reassignment. Reassignment is a type of last resort policy when roommates cannot resolve a conflict in their dorm. In this case, the university reserves the right to move people to other dorms to avoid conflict. However Brown made it clear that this was a rare occurrence. He also noted the overarching challenge facing everyone returning to campus. “Many of us are excited to come back to campus... It will come with strains; we haven’t had to congregate and live together with the way we have in the past.” ResLife wants to remain in touch with students and consider their input every step of the way.

Kingston Hall.

(image courtesy: SNHU External Affairs)