The Online Reflector

By Cecilia Perdomo
Staff Writer

Oral decisions and agreements are never official until they are written. Living with a roommate is more tolerable when there is a written agreement that both parties have discussed and signed.

The first time you meet your roommate, you don’t know what to expect. Knowing your roommate is always an advantage, but most college students only have spoken to their roommates over the phone before they eventually meet on moving day.

According to Resident Assistant Aimie Gatts, agreements are crucial and required because 95 percent of the time, students do not know the person they are going to live with.

Roommate agreements should be detailed and serious in order to facilitate understanding and respect for each other’s decisions. Each person should have a say in what will work and what will not.

I live on campus and had to compromise with my roommate in order to adjust to dorm life.

In the beginning, there were problems because of frequent visitation.

I later realized we had not sat down and written our agreement. Once we went over it and signed it, everything was better, and now we get along.

“The [point] is to be as open-minded, respectful and agreeable as you can,” Gatts said.

The key to having a good relationship is to communicate effectively with your roommate. Each roommate is responsible to let the other person know when a rule has been broken.

“The best way is to talk about it,” said Residence Director Anna Glowinski.

Roommates are equally entitled to do what they want in their room, but they must respect the other person’s choices and do what they agreed to in the beginning.

Unfortunately, roommates don’t always follow the rules. In many occasions, the roommates sign an agreement but don’t follow it thoroughly.

If one of the roommates feels the other person crossed the line, and they try to be reasonable with their roommate, but problems keep rising, this is the point when you talk to an RA or RD.

“We try hard [to solve the issues] before the point of throwing objects, or locking people out,” Gatts said.

According to Gatts, visitation and music are some of the common issues roommates complain about. Study and sleeping habits are also commonly discussed.

The RA will not tell your roommate that you have addressed the issue with him/her, if you don’t want that.

“Confidentiality is a big thing. If you have a major problem with your roommate and feel uncomfortable talking to them about it, your RA is always there to talk to you in confidentiality,” Gatts said.

One of the major issues residents deal with is overnight guests. In many instances one of the roommates has a girlfriend or boyfriend over and does not realize it might bother their roommate.
“The thing about overnight guests is they never tell the RA’s because they are scared they might get their roommate in trouble,” Gatts said.

According to Gatts, if your roommate’s girlfriend or boyfriend is in the room at night, and you are trying to sleep, tell the RA, who will try to resolve the problem.

The R.A. will not tell your roommate you told him or her. He or she will make it seem as if he or she heard a voice and came to investigate.

A point to keep in mind is that each roommate pays the same amount of money to live on campus.

Each person should try to meet the other’s expectations. Compromise is something that has to happen to have a comfortable dorm experience and roommate relationship.