Instead of waiting in line to pick a room for the next year, students can now register for housing from the comfort of their computers.

According to Assistant Director of Residential Life Seth Hagler, the online system for Room Draw was created after surveying students from last year’s Room Draw.

“We did evaluations after Room Draw last year and we said, ‘What are the common themes here? What’s working, what’s not?’ And the most common thing we saw was a desire for an online process, and that fit really well with our goals of sustainability, transparency and ease of use,” Hagler said.

Room selection will take place through a website called the Residence System, an online portal where students can also fill out their housing application and select roommates.

Students who log in to the site and fill out their housing application are given a Room Draw time, depending on their class standing and quality points.

According to Hagler, quality points are comprised from a student’s GPA, multiplied by the number of credits taken. Students with the highest class standing and highest quality points will draw first. At their given time, students can log back on and choose from a list of available rooms and select roommates.

Students with a total of five roommates, including themselves, will be eligible to register for Carrollton Hall.

Those without a roommate will be able to fill out a questionnaire on the website, which will pair them with someone with similar living preferences.

Since Cabra Hall will be offline next year and living space will be limited, the university is offering sophomores an exemption program where second-year students can live off campus and have their residency requirements waived. Instead of selecting the housing contract on the website, students can select and fill out a sophomore exemption request. The deadline to sign up for the exemption is March 14.

Housing contracts are due March 23, and the Room Draw process begins March 28.

Scott O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]