July 30, 2021
Dear Residents,
We are looking forward to welcoming you into the Residence Halls in just a few short weeks. On Sunday, August 1, you will be able log onto BearPAWS to view your room assignment, to include your roommate’s information.
Residence Life does not have access to students’ vaccination status. As such, this information was not used when making housing assignments. We know that this is an important piece of information for many of you and we encourage you to take the next few days to talk to your roommate(s). If you are a new student, we’ve included a list of potential talking points for you and your roommate (in addition to vaccination status) at the end of this email. Please make sure to talk to your roommate on the phone (facetime, zoom, etc)—don’t just rely on impressions from social media.
In most years, we are unable to make changes to a student’s room assignment at this point in the summer. However, given the complications that COVID-19 presents, we want to do all that we can to help make sure that you feel safe and comfortable coming onto campus. As such, if you would like to make a request to change your room assignment, you can do so by completing this survey by the end of the day (11:59 p.m.) on Sunday, August 8. Please note the following:
- We may not be able to honor every request that we receive. Priority will be given to requests from students who are assigned to a double room and who did not select their roommate. If your request is able to be made at this time, it will not be able to be changed again until the 3rd week of classes.
- If you are requesting another roommate, you will need to provide their first name, last name, and Potsdam email. In order for this request to be considered, both students need to provide one another’s information.
- Available space in many of our buildings is getting tight. As such, it is likely that in order to honor your request, we will need to move you to another building/area.
- No changes will be able to be requested after August 8 at 11:59 p.m. Any requests after that time will need to be made after the start of the 3rd week of classes.
We are working on finalizing plans for your move back to campus and will have more details to you soon. New students (first year and transfers) should plan to move in by 4pm on Thursday, August 26 so that you are able to fully participate in your orientation experience. We also encourage students who studied remotely last year, and who have not yet lived on campus, to arrive on August 26 or 27 to help you get acquainted with campus. Returning students will be able to move in August 27 – August 29. Again, more details will be sent soon!
All my best,
Julie Dold
Director of Residence Life
Talking to your roommate for the first time can seem scary, but you’ve got this! Listed below are some questions that can help you have that first conversation. In addition, we encourage you to check out the Roommate Agreement and the COVID Guest Roommate Agreement to help you and your roommate to start on the same page.
- Why did they pick SUNY Potsdam?
- What are they thinking about majoring in?
- What do they like to do for fun?
- What are they looking forward to the most about coming to Potsdam?
- What are their thoughts/concerns about COVID-19?
- How do they feel about having guests in the room during the pandemic?
- Also, don’t forget logistics, such as:
- Who will bring the refrigerator?
- Who will bring the microwave?
- Who is bringing a TV?