Upperclassmen give tips on living with a roommate

Whenever senior Sarah Leavesley would walk into her room, her roommate would be working out in the middle of the floor. The whole place smelled like body odor.

It might sound like a horror story, but roommates and the interesting stories that they provide us are part of the college experience. Though most stories are funny and can be laughed at later, they can also be hard to handle.

Don’t worry, though. Most situations can be handled with a little adjustment, and we’ve got the tips below.

One important tip is to set guidelines and boundaries from the beginning. This sets the tone early and gives you something to fall back on if things go awry. It can also help ease differences.

Senior Michelle Ross has these kinds of issues with her roommate.

“She lived 3 hours away and didn’t go home much,” Ross said. “When I would come back to school after going home for the weekend, I would find all of my stuff messed with. One big difference and another breaking point for our roommate issues was the religious, alcohol and smoking differences.”

At the residence halls, you are required to fill out a roommate agreement form that takes care of this step, but this form must be taken seriously or it won’t help you when
conflict arises.

It’s also important to keep your emotions in check and remain level-headed. Seeking revenge, like junior Chris Parr, can only escalate the problem.

“My freshman roommate would have his computer play music all night,” Parr said. “I asked him several times if it could be turned off or turned down because I couldn’t sleep with it on. He said he would put it on a timer, but he never did, so I deleted his sound drive. The best part is that he thought his brother hacked onto his computer from home and messed with the settings.”

Like in any good relationship, communication is key. Keep in mind that it is a two-way street. You have to listen when they talk, and they need to listen when you talk.

If things do get really bad, however, use your resources. Junior Kate Olsson had a roommate involved with IUPD.

“My roommate ... missed a payment or wasn’t paying for housing or something like that, but RPS representatives and even IUPD would stop during the day asking where she was,” she said.

Each floor has a resident assistant and each center has a manager. If things get bad, request a meeting with your RA. He or she can sit in on a discussion with your roommate and help mediate. This is part of the job description.

Still, most roommate issues aren’t as serious as you think and can even be funny.

Right before she moved out, senior Alicia Smith and her roommate had everything cleaned.

“The only thing that was left in the room was all my stuff packed in a pile on the floor,” she said. “My roommate comes in with a 12 pack of ginger ale and was wondering what to do with it. One by one, the cans come rolling out of her arms and onto the floor, where they each begin to explode one by one. Everything got splattered by ginger ale — ceiling, walls, mirror, all my stuff, us, literally everything.”

They had to start the cleaning process all over again.

Most RAs say roommate issues can be solved by one thing: respect.

“Big issues among roommates that cause conflict are shared spaces like fridges and such, different cultures and being sensitive to that, and sleep times and noise levels,” Luke Majors, a McNutt RA, said. “These are some common stories that I hear.”