Please read our web page for more information about Residence Life policies, rates, and refunds for full details on room/building type rates. Refer to the Dining and Conference Services page to see a list of all meal plan options.
Your housing assignment and contact information for your roommate(s) will be posted online through your myPugetSound portal in mid-July. You will also receive a confirmation letter in the mail from the Residence Life office containing important details about moving into housing in August. The letter will also introduce you to the Residence Life professional and student staff members who will work in your new community.
An important part of coming to college is meeting new people and experiencing new things! We encourage you to fill out your Housing Application and go through our roommate matching process. However, if you are interested in requesting a specific student as your roommate, there is a section on the housing application you may fill out. You will need the student ID number of the student you are requesting to be housed with. In order for Residence Life to pair you with the roommate you have requested, the roommate must also request you in return. Please make sure that both you and your prospective roommate have requested each other on the housing preferences form. If you have already submitted your preferences form and need to make any changes, contact the Residence Life office at reslife@pugetsound.edu or 253.879.3317.
Tip number 1: spend quality time with your roommate. Students who are very different often make excellent roommates. The strongest roommates are those that speak to each other often, spend time together outside of the residence hall room, and make time to share personal viewpoints. We strongly encourage you to move in, attend orientation, and get into a routine with classes before you make a determination about compatibility. Try to avoid making snap judgments about your roommate based on brief communications over the summer or social media. Many times it just takes students spending some intentional, quality time getting to know each other to learn that they are a great match. Residence Life staff provide a number of guided opportunities for you to explore your roommate dynamic at the start of the year, including leading a "roommate success" conversation and facilitating you and your roommate filling out a Roommate Agreement form available electronically through Roompact in September. If you find that your living arrangement is not working at some point during the year, you should contact your RA, RCC, or RD to talk about your situation and options.
Puget Sound strives to provide an inclusive, welcoming environment for all students. We understand that some students self-identify as a gender not included in a traditional male-female binary. Puget Sound seeks to provide a supportive environment for all students, including students who identify as transgender, maybe questioning or exploring their gender identity, or are gender non-conforming. If you designate on your housing preferences form that "yes," you would feel comfortable living with a non-binary roommate assignment, you are identified as an ally and potential safe roommate match for a student whose gender does not fit a male/female binary.
Your room will be furnished with the following university furniture (measurements are approximate): a wardrobe (45”x51”x24”), desk (42”x24”), desk chair, drawers (22”x22”x5”), a bookcase with shelf (30”x16”x15”), and a bed (all beds are extended-length 80" twin, except in the Langlow House and Language & Culture House, which have standard-size twin beds). Your room will also be provided with a recycling bin and wastebasket.
Students are not allowed to remove any university furniture from their rooms. Residence Life and Facilities Services will not remove or break down any furniture that the university provides. You may bring additional furniture to add to your room (such as a couch, chair, tv stand, etc.) as long as it fits in the room without creating a fire hazard or causing you to have to break down or remove any of the furniture provided by the university.
Students may not paint any surfaces in their room; however, decorating is encouraged! This is your new home, so make it cozy! We will provide you with a list of important room set-up instructions upon check-in in August to help you arrange your room in such a way that will adhere to health, life, and fire safety policies. Please refrain from using nails, tacks, duct tape, or masking tape on surfaces, as these will likely cause damage that you will be billed for upon moving out. We suggest you use white poster putty, blue painter's tape, and 3M Command products to hang any decorations.
For non-emergencies, students should contact their RA, RCC, GHC, or RD in order to file a work order through the Office of Facilities Services. Please provide the RA, RCC, or RD with your cell phone number so that Facilities can contact you with questions about the repair or to schedule an appointment. Also, please be as specific as possible about the location and details of the problem. If the issue is an emergency during normal business hours, you may call Facilities Services directly at campus extension 3713. If the issue is an emergency after hours, call Security Services at campus extension 3311.
A residence hall is supervised by a Resident Director (RD). RDs are full-time Residence Life professional staff members, often with graduate degrees, who live in an apartment located in one of the facilities for which they are responsible. RDs oversee the day-to-day operations of the residences, including selecting, training, and supervising 7 to 10 student staff members, advising the community's Residence Hall Association, developing programs, resolving resident conflicts, and managing crises. Within the residence halls, Residence Life student staff members are known as either Resident Assistants (RAs) or Resident Community Coordinators (RCCs). These student staff is a great first-step resource for students that reside in their areas. They commonly provide programs and resources, help with roommate conflicts, as well as make suggestions and referrals to appropriate offices and departments related to academic and other university or personal concerns.
Packing light is encouraged! If a student packs too much, they may find themselves strapped for space. We encourage students to work with their roommate(s) over the summer to plan who will bring shared items (such as a microwave, fridge, TV, etc.). Some other important items to consider bringing are: an alarm clock, a computer (computers are also accessible in residence hall computer labs and the library), a shower caddy and shower shoes, bedding, towels, plastic storage bins, an area rug or throw rugs, a surge protector and extension cord, a desk or bedside lamp, etc.
Campus housing opened for new students at 9 a.m. on Friday, August 18, 2017. Please refer to the Important Dates listed on the Residence Life webpage for more information. You may also refer to the Campus Events Calendar.
Housing assignments are based on a number of considerations, including medical or health-related needs, placement in academic-residential programs, placement in various themed housing programs, lifestyle preferences, roommate requests, and availability. Certain needs or preferences are ranked above others within our assignment process. For example, if a student has a documented personal health issue that requires a particular type of accommodation, it will be our first priority when assigning them to space on campus. Another example is if a student is assigned to a fall residential seminar*, placing that student on the same floor with those classmates will be a top priority. For this reason, we encourage students to be honest on their housing application regarding lifestyle characteristics and interests in theme housing so we can make the best match for their interests and our availability. If you have further questions about the housing application process, please contact us.
*Residential seminars are a wonderful opportunity for first-year students to extend their learning beyond the classroom. Faculty and Residence Life staff working with residential seminars provide the students with a variety of enrichment events that connect to their coursework and will enhance their learning experience. Some activities offered in the past include films, field trips, and guest lectures. We have found that students in residential seminars typically establish a feeling of camaraderie and community quickly and often study and socialize together. For more information about the academic component of the residential seminar program, please contact the Office of Academic Advising.