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Furman Home Page / Parents
Policies & Procedures
Furman University is committed to providing equal access to its educational programs, activities, and facilities to all otherwise qualified students without discrimination on the basis of race, national origin, color, creed, religion, sex, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other category protected by applicable state or federal law. An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer, Furman also affirms its commitment to nondiscrimination in its employment policies and practices. For concerns related to discrimination on the basis of disability, contact the Disability Services Coordinator, 864-294-2320, 3300 Poinsett Hwy, Greenville, SC 29613. For all other concerns, contact the Assistant Vice President for Human Resources, 864-294-3015, 3300 Poinsett Hwy, Greenville, SC 29613
Housing & Residence Life Policies
Because studies have shown that students who live in campus housing are more likely to become involved in campus activities and graduate in four years, Furman requires that all students live in campus housing, except those approved by the Director of Housing & Residence Life (The Helmsman, p. 29). Since all students are required to live on campus, they are guaranteed campus housing. However, the University still considers the right to live in campus housing a privilege. Therefore, the Director of Housing & Residence Life reserves the right to deny space in campus housing to any student even though approved for admission or continuing to be enrolled at the University (The Helmsman, pp. 29-30). A. New Student Room Assignments. All housing assignments are made by the Assignments Coordinator. Before an assignment can be made for new students, a $400 enrollment deposit must be submitted to the Student Business Center. All incoming students must submit an on-line roommate placement form prior to June 1. The Housing & Residence Life office will provide incoming students with these instructions after the regular decision enrollment deposit deadline has passed (The Helmsman, p. 30). C. The Vinings. The Vinings is an apartment complex located on Duncan Chapel Road that accommodates both Furman students and members of the community. Rising fourth-year students may enter the housing lottery for the chance to live in this University-owned facility. Students must sign 12-month leases to live there (The Helmsman, p. 30). D. Off-Campus Exemptions. Each spring semester, students will be given the opportunity to apply to live off-campus for the following year based on one of the following criteria: living at home with a parent/guardian; living in a fraternity house; married; fifth-year student; medical exemption; financial exemption; or graduate student. If necessary, a designated number of fourth-year students will be allowed to live off campus and will be determined using a lottery process. All off-campus exemptions MUST be approved by the Director of Housing & Residence Life (The Helmsman, p. 30). The University reserves the right to require single occupants of double or triple rooms to change rooms so that the housing needs of others can be better met (The Helmsman, p. 29).
All room changes must be approved by the Assignments Coordinator. If a student changes rooms prior to such approval, a $75 fine will be assessed. Keys to previously occupied housing assignment must be returned by the date indicated on the room change authorization form (The Helmsman, p. 31). To reserve a place in the university, all new students who plan to enroll at Furman must make a non-refundable enrollment deposit of $400. This payment is not covered by scholarship or financial aid. It will be held until the student graduates or leaves at the end of an academic year.
Housing & Residence Life gives considerable time and thought to matching roommates. All new resident students should carefully complete the online roommate placement form. A link to this form will be made available on http://www.furman.edu/newatfu/. It is no longer necessary to try and quickly submit this form. The information provided can be useful beyond your first semester at Furman. Therefore, even if you are requesting a particular person as a roommate, you should still complete the form and submit it to the Housing & Residence Life office. All mutual roommate requests that are received by the deadlines are honored. Final decisions on other roommate matching are made by Housing & Residence Life. The deadline for returning the form is June 5. Any applicant who receives their letter from Admissions after the June 5 deadline should complete and submit the online form immediately. Before you complete the form, you may want to check out the different residence hall descriptions. Please note that priority is given to residence hall requests based on a random computer-generated lottery number assigned to your roommate placement form. Priority is no longer given based on the order the submissions are received.. Most residence hall rooms are designed for two students. Occasionally, when student requests for housing exceed available space, double rooms originally designed as triple rooms will be used to meet the need by assigning three students per room. The students with the highest random computer-generated lottery numbers assigned to their roommate placement forms will be the students assigned to these triple rooms. A limited number of single rooms are available for new students. Students who require special housing accomodations due to a diagnosed disability must follow the proper procedures outlined by Disability Services.
Each spring semester, all students living in campus housing the following fall semester (except new students) are expected to participate in an online room selection process (a.k.a. Housing Lottery). This process is designed to offer students a range of housing options while maintaining the integrity of the process through fair and consistent implementation. The Housing Lottery is a student-designed process that gives priority for selecting room assignments based on a student's start year in college. For example, a group consisting of four students who entered college in the fall of 2006 would have the most priority for North Village. A group consisting of a mixture of those who entered in the fall of 2006 and the fall of 2007 would be next on the priority list. To further determine a group's priority, a random number is computer generated when the group submits their request online. A student's official classification through the Academic Records office and the number of academic hours a student has earned has no bearing on a student's housing assignment. A student's eligibility or priority is determined by their start-year in college. The start-year for a transfer student is based on when the student started college, not when the student enrolled at Furman. Details regarding the Housing Lottery are made available to students and parents by mid-February.
A. North Village Squatter
Students living in North Village are given the opportunity to retain their current apartment for the upcoming year if the following conditions are met prior to the Housing Lottery:
Although Furman University has a four-year residency requirement, a number of students are allowed to live off-campus. These students must apply to live off-campus during a designated period of time (usually in March) based on one of the following criteria:
* If approved, students must reapply for this exemption to live off-campus again the following year. Students who want to apply to live off-campus after the designated period of time must appeal in writing to the Director of Housing & Residence Life. Please note that only extreme circumstances will even be considered.
A. Post-Lottery. In support of the University's budgetary goals, Housing & Residence Life must make every effort to see that campus housing is filled to capacity throughout the year. This goal cannot be achieved if everyone is assigned housing during the regular assignment process spring term. Otherwise, those who decide (between May and August) to withdraw from the University will leave empty spaces. It is estimated that between 20 and 30 men and 20 and 30 women will be placed on a waiting list and assigned campus housing once attrition and the consolidation of those left without roommates has occurred. In most cases, Housing & Residence Life will make waiting list assignments in early August. By waiting until most activity has occurred, Housing & Residence Life can try to keep waiting list students in roommate pairs and assign them in preferred areas. B. Undesirable Assignment. Housing & Residence Life also recognizes that students will not always get the assignment they desire and/or request during the assignment process. Therefore, students may contact the Assignments Coordinator and request to be placed on the waiting list for a specific type of housing (i.e. single residence hall room or North Village bedroom). Priority is given based on the lottery number for students who participated in the Housing Lottery and then in the order that a student's name is added to the waiting list. When a space becomes available, the next student on the list will be offered the assignment. If the student declines, then the next student on the list will be offered the assignment and so on. This waiting list process only applies during the summer for fall semester assignments.
A. Fall Semester. Students participating in fall study away programs and living on campus during the spring semester are given the opportunity to participate in the Housing Lottery and guarantee a specific space for the spring. However, these students are required to pay 75% of the housing cost for the fall semester assignment. Students who plan to pay to reserve their fall semester assignment MUST inform Housing & Residence Life of their intentions by completing the Reserve Fall Space Form by the deadline prior to the Housing Lottery Another possible way to guarantee a space for the spring semester is for the student to find another student who will be enrolled in class fall semester willing to live in and pay for the space for fall semester only (If the space is at North Village, the student must be a rising third-year or fourth-year student). That student would move into another space on campus beginning spring semester or may be participating in a spring study away program. If neither of the above is possible, students can be assured that Housing & Residence Life will do everything possible to assign them to a desirable space upon their return according to Section XIII.A. Students returning from studying away or a leave of absence are NOT guaranteed a space in North Village. B. Partial Semester Trips. Students participating in study away experiences for only a portion of the semester have two options. 1) Students may pay to reserve their housing assignment at 75% of the housing cost and have the freedom to access their assignment as necessary. 2) Students may live off campus for the study away semester, which is coordinated through the faculty in the study away program. However, these students are not exempt to live off campus for the other semester during the academic year.C. Filling-In. A student may decide to fill-in for another student during the fall semester while that student is studying abroad or taking a leave of absence. This is NOT the same as subletting in an off-campus apartment. Students may not sublet their space. The two students making this arrangement MUST notify Housing & Residence Life. The student who will not be living on campus for a semester will actually have their assignment cancelled and must completely check out. The student filling-in will be properly assigned to the space for that same semester. Once the agreement has been made and the assignments are official, changes can only be made if both parties are in agreement. The only exception to this is if the student originally assigned to the space is no longer studying abroad or taking a leave of absence. In this exception scenario, Housing & Residence Life will work with the student who was filling-in to obtain another assignment according to Section XIII.A.
Although strategic efforts are made during the pairing process, Housing & Residence Life acknowledges that not all roommate pairings will be successful. The vast majority of the time, a lack of communication is at the route of the problem in a roommate conflict. We encourage our students to be assertive and communicate with their roommate when an issue or conflict arises.
If this communication between roommates does not solve the problem, the student(s) need to notify their Resident Assistant (RA). RAs are trained to help mediate conflicts between roommates. If the RA is unable to assist the student(s), the RA and/or student(s) needs to contact the Area Coordinator for their respective living area. Area Coordinators are professional Housing staff members with special expertise in mediating roommate conflicts. Housing & Residence Life will not move a student to another room unless this is the only reasonable outcome as determined by an Area Coordinator. At a minimum, roommates are expected to communicate their concerns in a controlled, mediated environment facilitated by the Area Coordinator.
Students are given the opportunity to request room changes at periodic intervals throughout the academic year - three weeks after fall semester begins and in November for the spring semester. Fall semester assignments are made for returning students during April (see Section VIII) and for new students in July (see Section VII).
Recognizing that not all roommate pairings are successful, Housing & Residence Life provides a five-day window of time three weeks into the fall semester for students to change rooms. A student who wants to change rooms must find another student willing to switch rooms and all roommates involved must be in agreement. These students must come to Housing & Residence Life during that five-day window of time and sign a form together to get approval for the room change.
Students studying away, on a leave of absence, filling-in for another student, or wanting a different type of housing (i.e. moving out of a triple room) will be given the opportunity to submit an on-line request in November for the spring semester. Housing & Residence Life's goal is to accommodate as many of these requests as possible in a fair and consistent manner according to the priority process below.
Students who have a vacant space(s) in their room or apartment may be assigned a roommate(s) at any time if Housing & Residence Life deems it necessary. Housing & Residence Life will strive to make these assignments as described in Section XIII. Under certain circumstances, students may be required to move into another room so that the needs of students desiring to live together may be accommodated (see Section IV). Students will simply remain in their spring semester assignments for the duration of May X. Students who do not have a spring semester assignment will be given the opportunity to request an assignment for the month. Students must either be enrolled in a May X course or employed by the University to live in campus housing during the month of May. Student-athletes still "in season" will be allowed to live in campus housing until the official season ends. Any requests for an exception to this policy must be submited the Director of Housing & Residence Life.
Three buildings in North Village are set aside for summer housing for any student desiring to live on-campus during the summer months. Students do not have to be enrolled in summer classes to live on-campus. Many students work in Greenville, do research for a professor, or assist with summer camps. Non-Furman students can even apply to live in campus housing. Although Housing & Residence Life anticipates being able to accommodate all students who request summer housing, Housing reserves the right (based on space limitations) to deny summer housing to students who are not officially involved in some way with the University.
Housing & Residence Life must assign students to both private bedroom apartments and shared bedroom apartments. Therefore, priority will be given to student requests based on their start-year in college. For example, a third-year student will be given priority over a second-year student. Applications will be made available online in April. (reviewed 4/09) | |||||||||||
