Update Regarding First-Year Housing and Roommates

The following message was sent on June 24 to all first-year students from the Office of Residence Life and Housing

Good Morning –

I hope this message finds you well! I’m writing today with a quick update on our housing preparations for the fall semester.

To address the health and safety concerns related to COVID-19, Wake Forest has considered a variety of residential options for students in the fall. We have carefully reviewed our residential offerings and have reduced occupancy where needed to promote the wellbeing of all community members.

The driving factors in the public health guidance we’ve received are the need to reduce the overall density of our residential community and to limit the number of students that share a bathroom. We have accordingly configured our communities such that we expect to offer approximately 65% single occupancy rooms and 35% double occupancy rooms.

Typically, first-year roommates are assigned by the Office of Residence Life and Housing based upon a number of factors that indicate compatibility. This roommate pairing process is reflective of the University’s commitment to helping incoming students get to know individuals different from themselves. Students will be assigned to housing based on their preferences on the Housing Application.

Recognizing the increased anxiety and stress that COVID-19 has introduced into our lives, we are offering an opportunity for first-year students who already know each other (e.g., friends from high school, etc.) to form roommate pairs. Please note, you do not have to form a roommate pair. For those who do not have a roommate in mind – which will be most of the Class of 2024 – be assured that we will use roommate matching questions to pair roommates together.

Our first-year assignment process will follow the following steps:

  1. Formed roommate pairs will be allocated to double rooms.
  2. Remaining double rooms will be filled by system matched roommate pairs.
  3. Students will be allocated to single rooms.

If you do choose to form a roommate pair, the pairs must be finalized, as outlined below, by Monday, June 29, 2020.

To form your roommate pair, please follow these steps:

  1. Contact your preferred roommate and request their Web Profile name; they set this as a part of their housing application.
  2. Visit our Housing Portal and follow the 2020-2021 Housing Application, after you visit the Roommate Matching Questions, you will come to a Roommate Pairing page where you can input your preferred roommates Web Profile name and send them a request.
  3. Your preferred roommate must then log into the Housing Portal and accept your request in order for your roommate pair to be finalized.

NOTE: The Housing Portal has a limit to the number of users that can be in the system at one time. If you get an error when trying to access the portal, please wait a few minutes and try to log in again.

Again, we are NOT asking all first year students to form a roommate pair. We know that most of you may not already know other students and we stand ready to match up roommates, using the successful process that has been in place for many years. We are only offering the option of first-year students selecting a roommate because of the concerns some students have expressed about wanting to room with a person they already know.

If you run into any issues or have questions, please contact Kristy Eanes, Coordinator of Assignments at eaneska@wfu.edu.

Best –

Zach Blackmon, Ph.D., MBA
Associate Director of Operations