Living on-campus is an important and exciting part of college life. CWRU, like most residential colleges, requires students to live in campus housing for their first two years.
Learning to share space is a huge step in your personal growth and development while in college. You’ll have to find ways to be considerate of your roommate(s) needs in addition to your own, to communicate honestly and respectfully about your concerns and needs, and to compromise when there are problems.
During this time, you will likely share a room with one, two or three roommates depending on your room assignment. Additionally, you should expect to share common areas like bathrooms, kitchens, study rooms, lounges, laundry rooms, bike rooms, and even hallways with your neighbors.
Sharing Spaces in Your Community
Living within a community means committing to collective support and shared accountability. We commit to facilitating honest dialogue between and with residents to support being a good neighbor and supporting the well-being of all community members.
Each year, all residential communities on-campus create specific community standards that go beyond the foundation "rules" for living in a residential setting on-campus. Like our students, these standards are living, breathing expectations for each individual and every collective community area.
- Community standards are a set of expectations that members of a floor, house, or community agree to uphold for the duration of the academic year while living together on-campus.
- These standards go above and beyond foundational University policies, procedures, and guidelines. They should encompass the needs, values, and attributes that are unique to each floor and/or community.
- Standards should include actionable ways for both holding yourself accountable and uplifting our floor and/or community throughout the year.
- Community Standards are considered "public" for community members to refer and adhere to. This includes all guests within that community, whether another student or an off campus visitor.
- The community has the opportunity to reflect on, revise, or add standards to meet the ever changing needs of the community.
It’s important that residents are on common ground about what it means to respect and care for each member of the community.
Community standards should reflect:
- How residents will talk to one another
- How residents will treat one another
- How residents will display caring and efforts to keep one another safe
- How residents will share and treat our physical space