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Department of Residence Life |
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Living Off CampusFacts About Applying to Live Off Campus
Click Here to Fill Out an Off Campus Release Application Now!Does Susquehanna University want students to live off campus?SU feels that living off campus can be a great experience for students. In addition to being enjoyable, the lessons learned while living in Selinsgrove will certainly be profitable to you in life after SU. Thus, the university is committed to allowing as many students as possible live off campus, while taking into account how it may impact the community of Selinsgrove and the campus of SU. What are the university "rules" about living off campus?When a student enrolls full-time at SU, he/she is required to live on campus unless:
So how do I apply to be released to live off campus?The link at the bottom of this page will take you to the Off Campus Release Request form. Fill out the form with all of the necessary information and submit it by 4pm on Monday, February 18, 2008. Your application will be automatically forwarded to the Office of Residence Life and your name(s) added to the list of applicants. What happens after I submit an application?You are placed on a list which is ranked according to lottery number. For example, if Billy Bob's lottery number is 1 and he applies by himself, he is the first person on the list. If John Doe and Jane Doe apply as a group and their averaged lottery number is 2, then John and Jane are the second and third people on the list. And so on. The university will make a decision in the following weeks as to how many people can be released off campus for next year while still maintaining 100% occupancy of rooms on campus. This decision is based on a number of factors, including the estimated size of the incoming freshman class, projected upperclassmen retention rates, etc. Once the Office of Residence Life receives the decision number, we count down that many people on the list. Everyone above the cut off will be tentatively released, while everyone below the cut off is not released. We then notify everyone on the list of the results via email. Do I have to fill out an application for release if I already live off campus?No, once you are released to live off campus, you are considered to be permanently released. If you wish to move back on campus, you must contact the Office of Residence Life to receive permission to reenter the university housing system. I heard that more than three people can't live together in Selinsgrove. Is that true?Yes, a Selinsgrove Borough ordinance states that no more than three unrelated people can live in a single-family dwelling together. Because of this ordinance, the university can not release students in groups of four or more because we would be tacitly sanctioning a violation of the law. If your application indicates that more than three people will be living together at the same time, it will not be accepted. If you have a relative on campus that is part of your group, you may list more than three people on the application. You should include the fact that two of the applicants are related in the Notes section of the application. If the apartment you are leasing is outside the borough or it is a multi-family dwelling, you may list more than three people on your application. You should include this information and the address of your apartment in the Notes section of the application. Please know that we will have to verify this information with the Borough Office.Can men and women apply as a group to live off campus?Yes. There are no rules in Selinsgrove concerning men and women living together. What if some of us are going abroad for a semester?Groups of more than three people can apply to live off campus if some of the roommates will be "switching out" due to alternating abroad plans. For example, Jane, John, Billy and Sue can apply as a group because John is going abroad in the fall and Billy is going abroad in the spring. Thus, there will never be more than three people living in the apartment at the same time. If it turns out that one or more of the applicants changes his/her mind about going abroad, one member of the group will have to live on campus. I want to live off campus with two of my friends. Should we fill out an application as a group or individually?It's up to you. There are pros and cons to both scenarios. If you and your friends apply as a group, your lottery numbers are averaged and the average is what determines where your group falls on the list. By doing this, if your average lottery number is low enough, your whole group is released together and you don't have to worry about one of your friends being left behind. However, for some students, being released off campus themselves is more important than being sure they will live with friends. Thus, if a students' lottery number is low but his/her friends have high numbers, he/she may choose to go through the lottery him/herself instead of taking the risk that the group's average number will not be good enough to be released. What if I don't fill out the application by 4pm on Monday, February 18, 2008?If you don't get your application in before the deadline, you can still be considered for release. However, your name(s) will be added to the bottom of the list on a first come, first serve basis regardless of what your lottery number is. You should contact Residence Life to be added to the list. If I'm not released to live off campus, what do I do?If you are not released to live off campus, you should plan to live on campus and go through whichever of the housing lotteries you like. There is a chance that as the semester progresses and housing factors become more known, the university may decide that it would not be detrimental to the campus to release more students than originally planned. In which case, you may be released. However, you should not plan on this happening and therefore should not sign a lease off campus that can not be broken in the event that you are not released. What happens if I move off campus without being officially released?Because students must be officially released to live off campus, if a student physically moves off campus without the university's consent, that student will still be subject to being charged for room and board regardless of whether or not he/she has signed a lease. This is not a pleasant scenario for either the student or the university, so it's important to go through the proper channels to be released. Click Here to Fill Out an Off Campus Release Application Now! |
