Whether roommates choose to live with each other from the start, the new housing partners must go through certain procedures.

Carl Jardine, director of Student Housing Services, said he uses two different methods to determine who will become roommates.

The umbrella process is for individuals who do not have a roommate in mind.

Students are placed based on the information he or she gives on the housing application, such as choice of halls and lifestyle floors, he said.

Using this information, Jardine said he places the students according to their choice, provided the space is still available.

Freshmen Linda Debiec and Michelle Kozak said they did not know each other before they became roommates.

Debiec said she applied for a co-ed floor and 24-hour visitation. A few months later she found out Kozak would be her new roommate.

“Michelle wrote me a letter and I called her to talk about what kind of music we like, boyfriends, etc. …,” she said. “Everyone who meets us now thinks we knew each other before we came up here.”

Although Debiec said she felt they would get along, she also said she feels they have become good friends.

“We don’t fight. We know when each other is moody and when to lay off,” she said.

Students who know who they want to live with go through another process, Jardine said.

Both students must list their preferences and send in their applications at the same time, he said.

However, if they wait too long to send in the applications, they may not get their choice of roommate, he said.

“The earlier they send them (the applications) in, the better of a chance they will have (to live together),” Jardine said.

If room space or lifestyle arrangements are not available, Jardine said he tries to put the students together as close as possible.

Pat Klein and Colin MacDonald, who have been friends since fourth grade, agree they are happy they became roommates.

Klein said he filled out his application and sent it in with MacDonald’s.

He also said it’s an advantage to know who your roommate is going to be because “you know what you’re going to have to put up with and there won’t be any surprises.”

MacDonald said he is glad he didn’t have to deal with the pressures of meeting a new roommate.

“Knowing my roommate was a big plus for getting used to college,” he said.

However, roommate situations don’t always have a happy ending.

Ron Riedel, a Grant Towers South resident assistant, remembers the worst roommate problem he ever had.

He said he was awakened at 3 a.m. by a fight between two girls. One roommate was banging on the door after the other purposely locked her out, he said.

“After hearing loud hostile voices, I tried to talk to them,” Riedel said. “But they didn’t want to resolve their conflict and decided to avoid each other until the year was over.”