NIU junior Andrea Schlotfeldt and senior Jennifer Nance are a roommate success story.

The two have roomed together for five semesters since Nance transferred to NIU midsemester as a junior. Schlotfeldt was a freshmen.

“I was scared to death,” Nance recalled. “I had never been away from home at all. I walked into the room and she had a picture of the Doors, and I had no idea who Jim Morrison was.”

“We were complete opposites,” she said. “Since we were so different, we had a lot to talk about. We were both really flexible” about getting along.

But Schlotfeldt said their relationship was not without problems. “We’ve had our share of conflicts, but we try to tell each other what’s bothering us,” she said.

One of the ways they tell each other their complaints is by leaving little notes or letters.

“One time I wrote her a letter and sent it to her boyfriend’s,” Schlotfeldt said. “It’s kind of like a happy medium now.”

The basic guideline to getting along seems to be respect, said Jeff Ney, two-year resident assistant on the all-male floor of 11B in Grant Towers North.

“To get along you just have to respect each other’s privacy and property,” Ney said.

oommates who get along seem to be “open and they have a strong ability to communicate with one another. They don’t keep things pent up,” said Kurt Johnson, a Gilbert Hall staff assistant.

If roommate conflicts do arise, a floor resident assistant might be able to help sort things out, but “it’s important for RAs to know their limitations,” Johnson said.

Johnson, who was an RA last year, now helps train and select staff members. RAs “can’t resolve everything,” he said. “They’re not counselors and there’s only so much they can do.”

If problems prove to be too much for the roommates themselves to work out, RAs may refer them elsewhere for counseling help, Johnson said.