CUA Begins Room Selection Process for 2025-26 Academic Year

Image Courtesy of CUA Enrollment Services 

By Anthony Curioso

CUA students have officially begun the “Room Selection” process for next year, which a previous Tower article described as “one of the most stressful parts of [the] spring semester.” Housing Services released their “housing intent form” for the 2025-26 school year at 10 a.m. on February 13 through the “MyHousing and Dining” portal, accessible within the Cardinal Station platform.

The intent form is step one of a three-step process most students must follow to receive a housing assignment for the 2025-26 school year. 

Once students complete this step, they form a roommate group in the MyHousing and Dining portal with other students who have also completed the intent form. Based on their composition, Housing Services divides most roommate groups into three categories: groups containing only rising sophomores, groups containing only rising juniors, or groups containing a combination of both rising sophomores and rising juniors. 

Groups with only rising juniors will receive notification of their time to select their housing first. From there, Housing Services will assign groups to their housing times in this order: combination groups with more rising juniors, combination groups with more rising sophomores, then groups consisting of only rising sophomores will receive their selection times last. 

Once students have formed their roommate groups (indicated by a message within MyHousing and Dining stating that the group is “fully matched”), the groups can select which housing assignment they would like. Housing Services has a list of strict deadlines for forming “fully matched” roommate groups depending on the group size; the group size also determines when the group may select their assignment and which assignment options are available to them. For more information on the deadlines for forming the group size you want, please refer to the Google Slides presentation provided by Housing Services in an email sent on February 6.

Lyndsey Lopez, the Associate Director of the Office of Housing Services, commented on the rationale behind the phase format for Room Selection.

“The current Room Selection format with the phases has been in place since at least Spring 2023 for the 2023-24 school year,” Lopez said. “This model works well because we have it organized so students can live with their desired friend group.”

Rising seniors (members of the class of 2026) can look for off-campus housing through a portal provided by Housing Services. Rising seniors may also participate in the standard room selection process. However, rising seniors who want on-campus housing next year must consider a few caveats. First, members of the class of 2026 must still complete and submit the intent form. Secondly, only a select number of spaces within the on-campus residence halls will be available for Class of 2026 students who wish to live on campus next year. Third, the process for rising seniors to select housing will primarily occur before that of students in all the other grades. Lastly, rising seniors who intend to live on campus can only form roommate groups with other rising seniors. 

Lopez commented on the decision to have rising seniors select on-campus housing first. 

“Because seniors are not required to live on campus, we think it best that their room selection process is independent of the process for everyone else,” Lopez said.

The housing selection process differs slightly for students with accommodations on file with Disability Support Services (DSS). According to an email from Housing Services on February 12, these students can participate in the standard room selection process or a separate process known as “pre-selection.” 

In the “pre-selection” process, students with housing accommodations will receive a list of available residence hall types that would comply with their required accommodations. From there, Housing Services will propose an assignment that falls into one of those categories, and the student is responsible for accepting the proposed placement. 

Students with housing accommodations will have until February 28 to decide whether to participate in the standard room selection process or “pre-selection” and indicate their choice through a separate form made available only to them through MyHousing and Dining; regardless of their choice, these students still had to fill out the “housing intent form” once it launched.

Some students who have the option to participate in “pre-selection” may have noticed that one of the options for a housing assignment that would fit their accommodations is an “apartment-style unit in St. Lawrence Village.” Multiple sources reported that St. Lawrence Village is the name given to the area of still-under-construction trailer housing on the Curley and Marist lawns.

Lopez commented on Housing Services’ vision for St. Lawrence Village. 

“We are excited to offer [St. Lawrence Village] as a housing option for our students next year,” Lopez said. “We have chosen to place it in the same category as Millennium North and Millennium South, so all students eligible for residence halls in Millennium North and South will also be eligible to live in the new spaces.”

For students intimidated by the Room Selection process, staff members from Housing Services set up a table in the Pryzbyla Center on February 18 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. to answer questions and again on February 27 during the same window.

Lopez shared that students should feel free to stop by the Housing Services office in Pryz 207 with any questions, comments, or concerns that arise outside of the tabling times.