The Office of Residence Life announced on Tuesday changes to their housing lottery process, including a shift in the platform students are required to use when registering for the housing and roommate assignment process.
According to the communication sent directly to students, the first round of housing selections is scheduled for the morning of March 19. Housing selections will continue until April 11, when the third round of selections is slated to close.
ResLife also announced they will replace “The Housing Director” with “Star Rez Portal X,” a housing software system that is touted as a more efficient and modern version of The Housing Director.
“Instead of using The Housing Director, students will be using the new system, Star Rez Portal X, to complete their housing applications, select and find roommates, select meal plans, and more,” the email communication reads.
In 2022, StarRez, the parent company that manages the university’s new housing system, acquired Adirondack Solutions, making The Housing Director part of the StarRez housing software products.
StarRez is used by other higher education institutions like American University, MIT, Yale University of Miami and Wake Forest University.
On its website, the company claims its product facilitates the college housing experience by combining housing applications, student activities and maintenance requests in one single platform.
The university says Star Rez Portal X will be made available to university students through the my.Fairfield portal. The website is not currently available to students.
ResLife staff members will host at least two informational sessions this week to provide students with information about the housing lottery process.
On Wednesday afternoon, they will organize an hour-long “kick-off” session in the Lower Level of the Barone Campus Center. Attendees will be greeted with free food and raffle prizes.
Following the in-person season, ResLife representatives will host a virtual Zoom webinar at 6 p.m in preparation for the 2025-2026 housing lottery, which opens on Feb. 10.
As part of the housing accommodations for the upcoming academic year, the Conference Center wing of the Media Center is set to be renovated to accommodate sophomore students, as reported in October by The Rearview and the CT Insider.
The university has not formally announced its plans to accommodate sophomore students in the old Conference Center but an attorney for the university told the town’s zoning officials that the move was aimed to “alleviate crowding on campus.”
In recent years, the growing number of students accepted into the university has affected the limited on-campus housing capacity, forcing housing officials to transform traditional double-occupancy rooms into so-called forced triples.
While four new residence halls have been built over the last five years, students still claim that triples and converted quads remain prevalent.
According to the Office of Residence Life, at the start of the 2024-2025 academic year, around a third of the incoming class was assigned to triples or quads.
Editor-in-Chief Max Limric is a Resident Assistant and therefore did not have any part in the creation, editing, or publication of this article before print.
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