Contract & Assignment Processes
This section is designed to provide you with essential information regarding processes that happen after the Priority Contract Deadline has passed. Here, you will find detailed explanations on various topics, including the room assignment process, how to request a room or dining plan change and other administrative processes University Housing may use depending on space availability. Our goal is to ensure you have all the necessary information to make your transition to on-campus housing as seamless and comfortable as possible.
Room/Suite Assignment Process
Lottery System
Rooms are NOT assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. Meaning, no matter how early a new student completes and submits their contract and non-refundable fee, ALL contract holders that meet the priority submission deadline of May 1 have the same odds of being assigned their top room-type preference. All contract holders meeting the deadline are entered into the room assignment lottery which assigns rooms in a randomized, system-generated order. Rooms are assigned to each contract holder with consideration to the preferences still available at the time their assignment is made.
If two contract holders have requested each other on their contracts (via a roommate group) and are eligible for the same community (LLC and/or Inclusive Housing), when the first person in the group is selected, all eligible contract holders within the same group will be assigned together (in the same room) ONLY if a room with the appropriate number of open beds is available at the time of assignment. Ex. Two students list each other as requested roommates; however, at the time the first student is selected there are no double-occupancy rooms with two beds available. The contract holders will be split up and placed in an available bed with consideration to their remaining contract preferences.
The Lottery System is used to allocate housing options equitably among students, ensuring a random and unbiased distribution.
Assignment Timeline
Learning who you’re going to live with and where can be one of the most exciting parts of getting ready to come to UW-Milwaukee. Information below will give you an idea of when to expect your assignment to post, where to find room-/suite mate contact information and how we process assignments differently based on semester of entry and student type.
Students Entering in Fall/Semester I
Beginning in the fall a year prior to enrollment, University Housing will release online contracts and send a Contract Guidebook to each admitted student via email. You can specify a preferred roommate or provide information to help us assign one for you. You can also indicate your room type preference.
Assignments are based on a computer-assigned lottery, indicated preferences, and space availability, starting early June and continuing throughout the summer. Application to a Living Learning Community (LLC) takes priority over other preferences. University Housing may reassign students as needed to meet occupancy requirements, and inability to honor preferences does not void the contract.
Room assignments and room- and suite mate contact information are available through the Housing Portal starting in early June, with ongoing updates throughout the summer. It is common that not all contract holders will be assigned in June.
University Housing does not discriminate in room assignments based on various protected categories.
Students Entering in Spring/Semester II
University Housing does its best to accommodate the preferences you indicate when you sign your online contract, with room assignments made in a randomized order determined by lottery. (LLC requests are made by emailing UWMLLC@uwm.edu, which are then added to the resident preferences before the lottery is run). Due to a very limited supply of available spaces, it is very difficult to match most preferences. Roommate and LLC requests are the most difficult to match, followed by room type. All residents who submit their Spring-only Housing Contract by December 1 have an equal chance in the lottery. If you would like to explore a room change, please discuss it with your RA after you’ve moved in.
Room Assignments for Returning Residents
Beginning in January, we will release University Housing online contracts to all current residence hall students who then have the option to complete a new contract for the following academic year. In March, returners are given the opportunity to participate in Returner Self Assignment, self-selecting their own building, room and roommate(s), and suite and suite mates for the following year. If a returning resident chooses not to self-assign, they are assigned using the same process (lottery system) as new students.
How Can I Tell If I’m In An LLC?
The most reliable way to determine if you are assigned within an LLC is based on your room assignment. General locations of LLCs are listed on the Living Learning Communities page (though some suites on the identified floors may not be LLC suites). Also, some LLCs do not span entire floors. These will be listed as a range of suites (eg. 305-399).
Contract Preferences
Preferences are not a guarantee. They are used to assist in room assignment from spaces still available at the time a contract holder’s name is chosen in the lottery system described above. Below is an explanation for students who don’t get their preferred room assignment.
With the annual summer release of room assignments, University Housing gets a number of phone calls from concerned students, family members, and sometimes even friends, who want to know: (a) why the student didn’t get their top-choice room assignment and (b) what can be done about it.
In an effort to answer some of these questions, we’ve created the following guide for students.
Why Didn’t I Get My Preferred Roommate?
Explanation: when two roommates do not have matching requests, it is possible that they will not be paired together.
Living Learning Community Preference
The most frequent item that does not match will be Living Learning Communities. Since LLCs are University Housing’s top assignment priority, students may be assigned to their LLC, even if it means failing to grant a requested roommate. How can you tell if this happened to your request? Check the list of LLC locations below. If either student is placed in these areas, it means that they had an LLC request that broke the roommate pairing.
Roommate Preference
At times, we see pairs of students who did not request each other, even though they think they did. In its most benign circumstance, this may happen if someone copied a UWM ID# wrong. However, every year we also see instances in which one roommate who backed out or failed to include the UWM ID#. You can tell if you and your roommate(s) requested each other by returning to your Contract Preference Page in MyHousing. If you see a “confirmed” note next to the UWM ID# of your roommate(s) it indicates that the numbers were properly entered by all parties. If you see “unconfirmed” than the numbers entered did not match up.
Returner Self-Assignment
If one of the two roommates participated in Returner Self-Assignment (where the current year Housing Residents picked their rooms for the upcoming year), they may have ended up in a suite that didn’t have space for a new student to be assigned, or a space where a first-year student may not be eligible to live (Sandburg East).
Explanation: this is a rare circumstance but happens every year as we reach the end of available spaces. Because students are assigned in an order determined by random lottery, we will reach a point where every double or triple room has one open spot, but not two. At this point, a roommate pairing will be broken. If this occurs, the assignment system will next try to assign two requested roommates relatively close to each other (often in the same suite, sometimes on the same floor or in the same building). However, because so many spaces are usually taken when we reach this point of assignments, it is not guaranteed.
Explanation: this occurs for a number of reasons. Your roommate may have never completed a University Housing contract, they may have completed a University Housing contract, but AFTER the priority deadline of May 1, or they may have canceled a previously submitted contract. In any of these cases, you would be assigned without them.
Why Didn’t I Get My Preferred Living Learning Community?
Explanation: most of our Living Learning Communities are reserved for students who are admitted to a particular school/college or have a particular major. The most confusing of these is Health Professions, which require students to be admitted to the College of Nursing or College of Health Sciences. Both of those are different than AOC-Nursing or AOC-Health Sciences.
Explanation: a few of our LLCs had more demand than there were available beds. In this case we continue to monitor vacancies and reassign from the waitlist when possible.
Why Didn’t I Get My Preferred Building/Room Type?
Explanation: Certain preferences take priority over others as we go through our lottery process. In order to maximize satisfaction on these priorities, other preferences may not be considered.
Living Learning Community Preference
University Housing’s top priority is to assign a student to their preferred LLC. That means we would assign them to their LLC even if it meant not giving them the building or room type they requested.
Roommate Preference
University Housing’s second priority is to assign a student with their preferred roommate. That means we would assign them to their preferred roommate even if it meant not giving them the building or room type they requested.
Explanation: Like all housing markets, there’s a balance between supply and demand. For instance: we have far more requests for singles and triples than for doubles. Of all the room types, triples are the smallest offering we have. If we didn’t have your top preference available, we considered second or third options. If none of those were available in the same building, then the student was likely assigned to a different building.
So, what can I do now?
We encourage you to take a look and explore your newly assigned space before rushing to judgement. Every building (in fact, every home!) you will have during your lifetime will have pros and cons. Learning about your assigned building, and how to maximize your satisfaction are important steps. We have layouts of most buildings and room types available on our building-specific pages. If you’re coming to campus for New Student Orientation (or Transfer and Adult Student Orientation), we offer tours of most buildings and would be happy to show you those spaces. We also offer tours throughout the week. Set up an individual tour by registering on our University Housing Tours site.
If you still have reservations about your assignment, there are a few changes you may be able to make, depending on space availability and timing of your request. Keep reading for more information about certain contract changes.
Available Contract Changes
While you may be able to make a request for a change to your room assignment during the summer, University Housing has limited space to honor all change requests and cannot guarantee a change will occur during the summer months. We encourage residents to enter the academic year with an open mind and give their room assignments a try. After any possible summer room change period is complete, a room freeze will occur until the third week of the semester.
Make sure to read through all room change information prior to completing the form. If room changes are unavailable, there will be a note of explanation in place of the form.
Room Change Waitlist
University Housing does offer waitlists through the Housing Portal for those seeking a specific room type within a specific building. If you weren’t assigned your preferred room type because no more were available at the time you were assigned, you have access to place yourself on a waitlist for that room type until the room freeze goes into effect. You will only have access to the waitlists once you are originally assigned a space.
After the room freeze lifts, all requests for rooms should be submitted through the Room Change Request form.
Prior to the start of the upcoming semester, if you decide that the Residential Dining Plan you chose on your Housing Contract will no longer suite your needs, you have the ability to request a change in your dining preference through the Dining Plan Change form. However, all Residence Hall residents are required to have a Dining Plan and are unable to completely drop their chosen plan.
Please read through eligibility and deadline information on the form page prior to submission.
If you would like to change your LLC preference, send your request via email to uwmllc@uwm.edu. An approved LLC switch or drop request may change your room, suite, and/or building assignment. However, if we are at full capacity, space may not be available in a different LLC. And, dropping your LLC completely may not result in a change of room.
Additional Assignment Processes
University Housing reserves the right to assign rooms over their stated occupancy, commonly referred to as overflow, or consolidate room assignments based off vacancies. University Housing uses a few different practices as we work to support students when University Housing Contract returns reach our capacity. We also want to acknowledge that University Housing receives a significant number of Contract cancellations throughout the summer and early fall. While we plan for overflow at times we reach capacity, we also recognize that the situation may be temporary.
Consolidation
Consolidation means that when a room, suite or apartment is not being used to its maximum capacity, University Housing reserves the right to move the remaining resident or residents to a similar room or apartment (preferably within the same building or, if able, honoring your contract preferences) to ensure maximum occupancy and efficiency of all living spaces. When consolidation is necessary, students will be notified via email. Consolidation could occur several times throughout the year starting with the room assignment process for the following year. Consolidation most typically occurs after the upcoming academic year’s first room assignment period in late June. The consolidation process will continue throughout the year as needed. Consolidation may require relocating one resident to another resident’s room. University Housing, given the authority to relocate and consolidate residents as outlined in the Contract & Guidebook, reserves the right to proceed immediately to administrative consolidation when deemed necessary.
Extended Housing (Overflow)
UWM, like many universities across the nation, occasionally runs into a phenomenon of overbooking. This happens due to variables in the contract release and cancellation process. When we have more Contract holders than beds, we have a series of temporary solutions that are put in place. Most involve adding furniture and an extra person in some of our larger spaces, for example: Sandburg East Tower Singles (turning them into doubles), Sandburg Triples (turning them into quads), Cambridge Doubles and Cambridge Upgrade Doubles (turning them into triples), assorted Sandburg Doubles (turning them into triples). Residents placed in overflow will enjoy the same individual amenities as students in a standard residence hall room: bed frame, mattress, dresser/wardrobe, desk, and chair (behind a locking door).
Delayed Entry
If University Housing assigns above a currently assigned resident’s intended occupancy, we will communicate with all assigned residents about this change via their UWM email addresses. We will also offer effected contract holders with an option to delay their Move-In to a residence hall until a permanent space becomes available. This offer (including further instructions) is only emailed to students within a commuting distance. This allows us to minimize the impact of overflow and may be a more comfortable alternative for some students who live closer to campus and have the resources to commute for a short time.
Note: When preparing for an overflow situation, it is University Housing’s hope that by starting the waitlist sooner we will minimize the students impacted by overflow housing.