Answer these questions: Do you consideryourself to be a night person or a morning person? Do you like tosleep with the window open? Are you a smoker? Do you prefer tostudy with background noise?

Every resident hallapplicant answers these same questions on a preference sheet inorder to successfully match them with a roommate oncampus.

Sierra and Sutter HallDirector David Lee says they try to meet everybody’s interests whenassigning roommates. “We look at age mostly because it might beeasier for a 35-year-old to room with a 25-year-old than a17-year-old,” Lee said. Hall Directors rarely look at majors orhometowns but pay close attention to hobbies, interests and musicpreference Lee said.

But what happens whenroommate matches turn out to be not so successful?

Criminal justice majorJennifer Sisson had a roommate who said she was going home to visither parents – but she never came back to the apartment. “I calledher and said, ‘What’s going on? It’s the first of the month? I needrent.’ She said she wasn’t coming back,” Sisson said. She was stuckwith the rent and had to ask her parents for help.

Lance Obtinalla, now anresident adviser in Desmond Hall, remembers his first year in thedorms when his roommate had sex while Obtinalla was in theroom.

“I choose to sleep thoughit,” Obtinalla said. “I don’t condone anyone having sex while theirroommate is there.”

So just how do halldirectors deal with uncompromising roommates? “I wish there wassome algebraic formula to figure it out, but there’s not,” Leesaid.

However, there is a chainof command to follow. When problems arise, they are brought to thefloor’s R.A. first. If the problem can’t be resolved there, theR.A. and the residents go to the hall manager. If the problem isstill is not solved, it is then taken to the halldirector.

“I’ve only had to getinvolved in about three or four roommate situations. The R.A.s aretrained to handle problems as they arise,” Lee said.

Jessica Lichau is a firsttime R.A. in Sierra Hall and concerned about roommates gettingalong. “We have roommate agreements where they talk about commonissues before they arise,” Lichau said.

Alicia Stonebreaker, areturning R.A. in Draper Hall, said that the biggest problem theyhad in the halls last year was roommates who didn’t talk to eachother and weren’t open-minded. “Even if you don’t like each other,you can talk about room standards like study time, music andovernight guests and hold each other accountable for them,” shecommented. When that type of situation arises Stonebreaker saidR.A.s try to point out the stubbornness and arrangemediation.

According to Lee, acompromise is always the first solution, but there is an option tohave a room change in December since students will graduate andmove out at the end of the fall semester. “We like to haveresidents write out or talk out their concerns,” Lee said. He saysthe best thing to do is keep an open-mind and opencommunication.

“Living in a hall islearning to live with other people. We try to teach everyone how tocommunicate as roommates as well as floor-mates,” Leesaid.

Christina Crabtree, afirst-time R.A. in Sierra Hall, has a few concerns about newroommates this semester. “I’m worried about the triples. A lot ofthem are two friends from high school and then the third is leftout,” Crabtree said.

Lee advises against roomingwith siblings and best friends in order to meet more people andbroaden your circle of friends. Some residents get lucky in theroommate lottery.

“The very first time I metmy roommate she said ‘Hi, my name’s Nicole can we bunk our beds?’and I said ‘I’m Alicia, as long as I’m on bottom,” Stonebreakersaid.

Some students aren’t solucky. “Heidi,” who wishes to remain anonymous, has two roommateswith polar opposite personalities: one loud, one quiet. “SometimesI just zone her (my loud roommate) out and she gets mad at me,” shesaid. “She snores really loud and thrashes around while talking inher sleep.”

In order to keep the linesof communication open and allow bonding to occur among roommatesand floor-mates, the Office of Housing and Residential Life puttogether a schedule of events for “Move-In Weekend” startingThursday. The weekend’s events included joint dinners in theDinning Commons, hall mixers, a softball tournament, a “Dive inMovie” at the resident hall’s pool and a trip to the CaliforniaState Fair.