Residence Life

Greetings from Residence Life!

As we approach the time to think about housing for next year, the Residence Life team would like to share news and information regarding the 2022-2023 Returning Student Room Selection process. There is a great deal of information included in this message. We recommend you keep this message for future reference.

Please take the time to read the following information carefully as it may impact your decision regarding housing for next year.

The 2022-2023 Housing Application & Contract will go live January 31, 2022, and Room Selection begins February 21, 2022. Please review the full 2022 Room Selection Calendar for important dates that may pertain to you individually.

If you plan to live on campus next year you must complete a 2022-2023 Housing Application & Contract by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 17, 2022:

• Students who have an approved Medical Housing Accommodation on file AND who have submitted their 2022-23 Housing Application by the Thursday, February 17, 2022 deadline will be assigned a Medical Housing Accommodation Selection Day time slot guaranteeing their accommodations for next year
• All other students who submit their 2022-2023 Housing Application and Contract by the February 17, 2022, deadline will receive the first chance of regular time slots based upon their social class during Traditional Room Selection week.
• Students who submit their 2022-2023 Housing Application and Contract after the deadline will be assigned a time slot at the end of their social class designated day during Traditional Room Selection week.
• Students who submit their 2022-2023 Housing Application and Contract after their social class Traditional Room Selection Day starts will be assigned a time slot on the next available room selection date later in the semester.

What's Happening in Room Selection 2022-2023

• Select rooms will be held back in upper-level buildings to ensure that we have enough beds for rising sophomores – this does NOT include singles and apartments.
• Medical Accommodations for Housing for Returning Students:
  • The Student Accessibility Services (SAS) requests process only applies to students who are requesting housing accommodations for the first time or who are requesting changes to their current housing accommodations. If you are already approved for housing accommodations and would like to keep those same accommodations for next year, no further action is needed. Please note if you are a first-year student in a residence hall with a window unit, you will not be added to Medical Housing Accommodation sign up as all upperclassmen halls have cooling systems.
  • February 7, 2022 is the deadline for completing a new request or adjustment for SAS. Requests will continue to be considered after this date, but there may be a delay in implementing accommodations based on space and availability.
• Adaptive Housing and Flexible Housing processes are retiring and will be replaced with Gender Inclusive Housing.
• Gender Inclusive Housing – Residence Life is committed to offering gender inclusive housing options to ensure inclusive communities. Residence Life offers two options of housing preferences based on gender:
  • Single-Gender Housing – having roommates/suitemates/apartment-mates who all have the same sex as listed in Banner
  • Gender Inclusive Housing – having roommates/suitemates/apartment-mates of any gender or gender expression/identity
• One Tribe Place will close and will not be available for student housing during the 2022-2023 academic year. We know that One Tribe Place is a popular residence hall and this temporary closure likely comes as disappointing news. We plan to reopen OTP to students in August of 2023. We will partner with Student Accessibility Services to work directly with students with accommodations who were planning to return to OTP next year. We will undertake two major areas of work at the facility:
  • Building system upgrades to ensure the long-term use of the facility: Following completion of a recent engineering study of the building, several necessary projects and system upgrades were identified that need to be completed to ensure the continued future use of One Tribe Place, including upgrading fire safety systems, encasing fiber optic cables and replacing bedroom doors.  
  • Demolition and removal of the unoccupied portion of the building: In addition, the university has decided to demolish and remove a portion of the building that has been unoccupied since the W&M acquired the property in 2013. Demolishing the unoccupied portion will allow for more efficient use of the facility and provide future options for further site development. 
• Richmond Hall will come back online as a traditional residence hall for the 2022-2023 academic year.
• Giles & Page Halls will become first-year housing and will not be eligible for same room sign up.
• Wait List: If the demand for housing exceeds the supply of available space, we will establish a wait list for on campus housing. 

Cancellation of Contract Prior to Occupancy

Students who are not required to live on campus have until February 28, 2022, to cancel their housing contract with no penalty. After February 28, 2022, students who have signed the W&M Residence Life Housing Contract but later request contract cancellation for the 2022-2023 academic year will be billed the cancellation fee schedule listed below.  The cancellation policy does not apply to rising sophomores (by social class).

After the February 28 cancellation period and prior to May 31, the following cancellation schedule and fees apply:

Semester I, Fall 2022

• Prior to February 28: If a request for cancellation is received before this date the student may cancel their contract without penalty.
• March 1 to March 31: If a request for cancellation is received between these dates the student may cancel their contract and a $500 cancellation fee will be billed to the student account.
• April 1 to April 30: If a request for cancellation is received between these dates the student may cancel their contract and a $1000 cancellation fee will be billed to the student account.
• May 1 to May 31: If a request for cancellation is received between these dates the student may cancel their contract and a $1500 cancellation fee will be billed to the student account.

Contract Release Exemptions: Students may submit a Contract Release Request via the Housing Portal under the 2022-2023 Housing Application. A contract release may be granted only to students who can demonstrate through the written and supporting documentation that their situation has changed in an unexpected or unforeseen manner and cannot be resolved in campus housing. Requests are considered on a case-by-case basis and release is not guaranteed. 

As in past years, rising seniors will be the first to choose their rooms, followed by juniors, then sophomores. A student’s designated room selection day/time slot is determined by social class, not credit-hour academic standing.

A Housing Information Session will be held at 3:00 p.m. on December 15, 2021.  The session will provide an overview of the process, will include a live Q&A at the end of the session, and the recorded session will later be available on the Residence Life website. The invitation to this session will be emailed out early that week.

Beginning in March – All Students who submit their 2022-2023 Housing Application and Contract after their social class Traditional Room Selection Day starts will be assigned a time slot on the next available room selection/room change date:

• Tuesday, March 22, 2022 (if no wait list)
• Thursday, April 28, 2022 (if no wait list)
• Wednesday, June 1, 2022 (if no wait list)

We look forward to having you live on campus with us next year!

-W&M Residence Life Assignments Team