Neighborhood FAQs and other key things to know about housing assignments
On Wednesday, March 30, undergraduates will receive an email from Residential & Dining Enterprises Student Housing Assignments inviting them to begin the process of selecting their housing for the 2022-2023 year. Here are a few other important dates and details you need to know.
- All students, including those applying for pre-assignment, serving as residential student staff, or living in Greek houses, must file a housing application by the April 18 deadline.
- Students who have special housing needs due to a disability or documented medical condition, as well as any members of their group, will not participate in the self-select process and will not be assigned gate times. Students with a medical need must file a Housing Accommodation Request Form with the Office of Accessible Education by April 11.
A new process
Students shared the importance of being able to easily assign with their friends and keep their groups together. The new process offers a streamlined and more transparent way of doing this.
This year, instead of listing residence choices on an application, students applying for undergraduate housing will fill out a much shorter application (March 30 – April 18) and then be assigned a gate time during which they will go into the housing system themselves and select their house and room all in one step (May 23-27).
This will allow students to make decisions in real time based on what is available at their selection time and will increase transparency in the assignment process. Detailed instructions and answers to many of your questions regarding House and Room Selection will be in emails you receive from R&DE Student Housing Assignments beginning this week. Be sure to read these emails carefully. On Wednesday, you can review instructions and other information about neighborhood housing on the R&DE website.
Why do we have neighborhoods?
The neighborhood system grew out of Stanford’s Long-Range Planning Process, in which faculty, students, staff and postdocs were invited to submit proposals “to advance frontiers, strengthen foundations, stimulate synergies, and anticipate change in one or more of the following key areas: Education, Research, Our Community and Beyond Our University.”
There were a number of proposals that suggested ways Stanford could do more to realize the full potential of the residential experience for our students. This need led Provost Persis Drell to commission the ResX Task Force. The Task Force submitted recommendations to the President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Provost Persis Drell in December 2018 and they were shared with the campus community in spring 2019.
What were the key concerns the recommendations address?
The Task Force heard from many students that they wanted a housing selection process that makes it easier to keep friend groups together. Students shared how important the friendships were in their frosh year on campus and the neighborhoods allow students to build on that year.
In addition, students will be able to develop supportive relationships with the residence staff (Resident Fellows, Resident Director, Community Coordinators, Neighborhood Program Directors, Undergraduate Advising Directors, Student Housing Building Managers and Housing Service Center staff, Stanford Dining Managers and Nutritionists, custodians and food service workers), who will be with them during their years in the neighborhood.
Was there student input in developing the ResX Task Force Recommendations?
Yes. Over the course of six months, the task force met with more than 500 students, alumni, faculty, and staff and it received some 600 pieces of unique feedback through an online portal in addition to reviewing 493 long-range planning proposals. The group also visited peer campuses (Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and Rice) and reviewed prior Stanford studies and presentations on the residences.
Why can’t the neighborhoods be contiguous? How will they work as neighborhoods?
One goal in creating the neighborhoods was to offer a similar quality and diversity of housing in every neighborhood, so each neighborhood includes a mix of housing options – all-frosh houses, upperclass houses (for sophomores, juniors, and seniors), a mix of independent living environments (Row houses, suites, and/ or apartments), and University Theme Houses, which can include academic and ethnic theme houses, co-operative houses, and Greek houses.
To accomplish this, each neighborhood also includes residences that are not immediately adjacent to the rest of their neighborhoods.
Stanford’s undergraduate neighborhoods are not only about physical proximity; as important, they are about being able to easily stay with the same group of friends and acquaintances throughout your time at Stanford. Some people have called this “community continuity.” While some parts of your neighborhood are next door, and a few might be a jaunt across campus, they’ll all be filled with students and staff that you know.
How will the neighborhoods build and support community and belonging?
Now that neighborhood councils have been formed, students can expect to see more community activity in spring. The neighborhood councils bring together a group of students with professional staff from Residential & Dining Enterprises, Residential Education, and Undergraduate Advising to promote community and belonging within the residential neighborhoods at Stanford.
Each neighborhood has emerged with its own unique identity that reflects the interests of the students and houses through programming and swag. Some exciting events planned for spring quarter include concerts, festivals, a drag show, an outdoor film series across neighborhoods, and much more!
Neighborhood dining is an essential part of supporting undergraduate communities. R&DE Stanford Dining’s neighborhood meal plans make it easier for students living on the Row, in Suites and Co-ops to engage with their neighbors. Dining also hosts a number of community cultural celebrations throughout the year.
Important dates to remember
Some parts of the assignments process are already underway or completed.
Placements for most student staff positions – Resident Assistant (RA) or Ethnic Theme Associates (ETA) – have been determined and communicated with students. Congratulations to the new RAs and ETAs who will be staffing next year in these critical leadership positions.
On March 28, students who applied to change neighborhoods were notified of their new neighborhoods.
March 28 was also the first day to submit applications for assignment to University Theme Houses. Find details on the application process and check out your options here!
R&DE Housing Assignments and Room Selection
- Wednesday, March 30
Undergraduate housing application portal opens - Monday, April 11
Deadline to submit Housing Accommodation Request Form (HARF) to the Office of Accessible Education (OAE) if applying for 2022-23 housing medical accommodation - Monday, April 18
Undergraduate housing applications portal closes - Thursday, May 19
Gate times sent to students participating in House and Room Selection - Monday, May 23 – Friday, May 27
House and Room Selection at assigned gate times
Pre-Assignments to University Theme Houses (UTH)
- Monday, March 28
Pre-Assignment applications for UTHs open - Sunday, April 10
Pre-Assignment Applications close at 11:59 PM PDT - Wednesday, May 11
UTH Pre-assignments announced to students