“Roomie” Social Helps Students

By: Jackie Sheridan
Posted In: News

Sophomore room draw is only a week away.

Lottery times are out, and every few minutes, groups of students trickle over to the Office of Residential Life to view maps of campus housing. They are hoping and searching for the perfect single, double, triple, quad, or quintet, as the case may be.

A little over two weeks ago, a few of these students were still without a roommate.

On Friday, April 7th, Joe Lomastro, assistant director of Residential Life, coordinated and ran the fourth annual “Sophomore Looking for a Roomie,” social, which is designed to compatibly match up students for housing the following year.

The program was first organized by former Assistant Director, Teresa Brown, and has continued to be successful for the past four years, generally with a turnout of about 10-15 people.

“Finding a roommate at the college level is an extremely stressful thing,” said Lomastro. He explained that the social helps students who are otherwise left stranded on the day of Room Draw, and also estimated that about 90% of the room matches from the event work out well.

This year, four males and seven female students came “looking.” Two of the men paired for a double almost immediately, having had a good conversation and finding that they shared similar interests. Lomastro moved around the rest of the students and facilitated conversation starters to spark instant connections.

At 3:30 p.m., after an hour and a half of conversing, another double and a triple had formed. All in all, only 7 students were still left to decide.

Lomastro encouraged them to eat a meal together or chat over some coffee to see if anything further could work out. Each unmatched student wrote his or her name and campus extension on a sheet of paper for Residential Life, in case any other opportunities came up.

Generally, the program was a success.

“I feel relieved that other people are in the same boat [as me],” said one student, who opted for a spot in the triple. “I was able to work out a situation suitable for me and two other people.”

And for those students, the chaos of next week’s Room Draw will be a little more comfortable.