Other Areas

Many questions you may have can be answered by the information provided below. Please contact us at [[living]] with additional questions you may have.

• Billing
• Furniture Specifications
• Air Conditioner/Window Size Restrictions

Billing

• What is a Common Area Charge?
• How is this money collected?
• Why does Residence Life bill residents?
• What about the Room Damage Deposit?
• Why is there an additional charge?

In the case of the common area charges, they are assessed by the area Hall/Apartments Council, not Residence Life. As part of our policy of Self-Determination in the residence halls and as outlined in the Housing Agreement, Hall/Apartments Councils are given the authority to assess responsibility for common area charges. These charges can include vandalism and/or extra cleaning charges (ex: broken lounge chair, remnants of a shaving cream fight, garbage bags left in the hallway). The Hall/Apartments Council can either assign responsibility to an individual, hall or building or they can designate the charge as unassigned if, in their opinion, there is no way to assign responsibility and the residents of the building should not be held accountable.

Return to Top

Hall/Apartments Councils are responsible for collecting the monies and forwarding payment for the common area charges to Residence Life. Thus this charge should not be a surprise to residents, as there was an opportunity to pay the charge prior to leaving. The Hall/Apartments Council also includes a list of those residents who did not pay their portion to the Hall/Apartments Council representatives. At that point, Residence Life then bills those residents.

Return to Top

For two reasons:
1) Billing those who do not pay underscores the importance of the policy of Self Determination and supports the Hall/Apartments Councils efforts to curb damages in the halls. Peer enforcement has been found to be the most effective way to cut down on damage costs. If these outstanding charges (no matter how small) were not collected there would be no motivation for residents to take responsibility for their halls and share in the costs for damages. In addition to the educational benefit of giving residents an opportunity to address their own concerns as a community, common area damages remain at a manageable level because of the Hall/Apartments Council's ability to recover the majority of those costs. Un recovered costs would then be passed onto residents in either increased rent or diminished services.

2) There is the simple issue of fairness. Usually about 80% of residents who owe Hall/Apartments Council charges will pay their Hall/Apartments Council Representatives. It would not be fair to those residents to allow the other 20% to avoid payment.

Return to Top

Regarding the $75.00 Room Damage Deposit, residents are refunded this deposit when they leave housing (and are not contracted for housing for the following year) minus any room charges. All of the deposits are kept in an interest bearing account and unassigned damages to common areas in the residence halls are then recovered through the interest money. The remaining interest money is made available to area Hall/Apartments Councils to use to buy recreational equipment for resident use. Hence the motivation for Hall/Apartments Councils to help minimize common area damages.

Return to Top

The administrative service charge of $15.00 is only added to billed Hall/Apartments Council charges to cover the additional overhead required to list and collect these charges by our office.

Return to Top

Furniture Specifications

Although furniture in every room is not the same, this page is designed to give you some information about the furniture in the residence halls. This is only a guide and furniture may vary from room to room.

Return to Top

Air Conditioner/Window Size Restrictions

Room air conditioners are not permitted unless a medical exemption is provided by the Student Health Center to the Residence Life Office prior to installation. Students should ask their physician to provide the Student Health Center with medical documentation of need for air conditioning, which must include the medications a student is currently taking.

Students must provide their own air conditioning unit, which must either be installed or inspected by staff from Facilities Management. Requests to schedule installation/removal of air conditioning units must be submitted in writing after your arrival on campus.