Meet Makenna Bohannon! Makenna is a junior Accounting major from Rogers, AR. Kenna is involved in the Navigators, Leadership Walton, and the Integrated Masters of Accounting program. Kenna loves going to used bookstores and buying/collecting books by various authors!
Going from having a space of your own to sharing a space with another person can be tough. Roommates are not always the easiest people to get along with, after all your student will be sharing a sleeping space, eating space, and even studying space. That is why it is important for your student to set up boundaries with their roommate. Having boundaries on what items they will share, such as a microwave, mini-fridge, food, school supplies, and clothes. Knowing what their roommate will and won’t share from the beginning is a great way to avoid arguments and fights later on in the semester. Another thing that should be talked about at the beginning of the semester is visitors. Your student’s roommate may not be friends with everyone your student is friends with so you should encourage your student to talk with their roommate about when it is acceptable to have friends over. Overall, communication is the number one tool to getting along with a roommate. They should not just communicate at the beginning of the semester, but throughout the year that they live together. I have personal experience that if you bring up an issue when it first comes up instead of waiting until they can no longer hold it in, it will result in a calmer and more comfortable atmosphere in their room.
Within the first couple weeks of living in the residence hall, your student and their roommate will be required to sit down with the resident assistant on their floor and fill out a roommate contract. I would encourage your student to take this seriously, because if they have any conflicts with their roommate throughout the year related to a topic that is covered in the contract, then they can go to the resident assistant (RA) and the RA can pull up a copy of the contract and help settle disagreements in a quick and orderly fashion and help restore order to the roommate balance.
Living with a roommate has its advantages, your student will already have at least one friend at the start of the semester to go to events with, to eat with, and someone to help them figure out where their classes are. I remember freshman year, before classes even started, going to the different dining halls on campus and seeing what each dining hall had with my new roommate, a girl that was randomly selected by campus housing. We used this experience to get to know each other better and to figure out what we wanted out of the school year from both our classes and each other.
Overall communication is key for your student to have a good relationship with their roommate whether they came to school to live with their best friend, they selected someone through the housing website, or if they were assigned a roommate. Encourage your student to discuss boundaries and use opportunities like trying different dining halls to get to know their new roommate.