Beginning this semester, continuing Boston University students will no longer have to visit BU Housing staff in the George Sherman Union to select their on-campus housing, BU Housing Director Nishmin Kashyap said.
BU launched the new housing system October 2015 in partnership with the management platform StarRez, which allows all undergraduate students to finish their room selection processes online, Kashyap explained.
While freshmen and transfer students have always applied for housing online, returning students have had to meet BU Housing staff in the GSU during the designated room selection period, Kashyap said.
“Everything used to be on a UIS mainframe, which is a 30-year-old system, and we wanted to get off that mainframe,” Kashyap said. “Students can pick their rooms and fill out room change forms from wherever — the GSU, Starbucks, wherever you want. Our current juniors and seniors will have a different experience. The system has changed for everybody”
The StarRez system, also used by the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and New York University, specializes in managing student housing, according to its website. Although the university has to purchase the program, in the long run, the new system will be more productive, Kashyap said.
“Of course we had to build [a database of] our 144 buildings, every bed space and everything into an interface, but the product is a purchased one,” Kashyap said. “It’s just a much more powerful system.”
With the update, BU Housing can better assist students with their particular needs, such as medical assistance.
“If you have a medical condition, now you can upload that documentation and be specific about it, or if you have a dietary need and you need an assignment based on your dietary needs,” Kashyap said. “Some folks like to be near 100 Bay State Road, or maybe in Rich Hall because the dining hall is right there.”
The BU Housing office is prepared for any questions or concerns students might have about the online system, Kashyap said.
“We have some videos that [BU Housing is] creating, such as tutorials that show you how to handle all the questions students might have,” Kashyap said. “The tutorial is basically screenshots with a student voice explaining what you should do. We’ll have an FAQ page and other methods to medicate all of the questions.”
Overall, the upgrade “brings benefits not only to students in the ease of applying, but also to the university managing the system,” BU spokesperson Colin Riley said.
The online system continues to allow students to electronically sign a Residence License Agreement, submit housing deposit, answer roommate questionnaire, search for and connect with potential roommates, according to the BU Housing website.
Many students said they are looking forward to applying for housing via the new online system, while some are nostalgic toward the old-fashioned way.
“My experience with the system [the] university had in place before was not all that flawed,” said Evan Creedon, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. “However, housing is something that both students and the university dread.”
Samantha Tetro, a freshman in CAS, said roommate questionnaires are the most helpful in the new online system because applicants can learn about their potential roommates through exchanged personal information.
“When I was looking for a roommate, BU’s roommate questions [in the old platform] didn’t really do much for me,” Tetro said. “I had to resort to Facebook and Instagram to try and find people that I thought I could live with.”
Katherine Jamison, a sophomore in CAS, said she is glad students can now submit their need for disability services online. The new feature would save students from any embarrassment they may feel when confronting someone about their medical or dietary needs, Jamison added.
“Before my parents encouraged me to look into services BU Housing provides, I did not know what [BU Housing] could do as far as accommodations go,” Jamison said. “[The new process] could really help out a lot of students by providing possible accommodation options online.”
