Residential Halls

At Westfield State, there are eight residential halls on campus and one off-campus. Out of these nine, four are first-year halls; Scanlon, Dickinson, Davis, and Lammers.

As far as choosing which residence hall you want to live in, for your first-year you will receive a packet in the mail from Residential Life. In it, you number 1-4, 1 being the most desired, 4 being the least, and number which hall is your first, second, third, and fourth choice. Also in this packet is a form for roommates. You can either pick your roommate by writing his or her name down or you can choose a random roommate. If you choose to pick somebody you already know or have just met, in order for you both to live together, you have to both write down each other's name. If you choose to pick a random roommate, there is a website where you take an online questionnaire and it will match you with people who have similar answers. Make sure that you choose your answers honestly; you don't want to put that you're neat and get a neat roommate when your room usually looks like a tornado went off. Residential Life honestly wants to make sure that you have a great living experience, so if you are having any sort of issues, definitely stop by and talk to them.

Being in college, it's inevitable that there will be parties. You're away from home for the first time and living independently, which means no bed time, no parents hounding you to do your homework, and no parents around to bust you and your buddies if you guys decide to let loose a little bit. Westfield State is a dry campus, meaning that alcohol is not allowed unless you live in an on-campus apartment where every resident is 21 or over. If you're caught with alcohol or drugs, you have to complete ten hours of community service, have to pay a $100 fine, and attend alcohol education classes. On your second offense, you lose housing for the upcoming semester and on your third strike, you get kicked out of school. Parties happen but if you do choose to partake, be responsible about it. I'm not sure your parents would like to hear that you have to commute from home for a semester because you got caught partying.

In each residence hall, there are quiet hours ranging from 9pm-9am on Sundays-Thursdays and 11pm-9am on Fridays and Saturdays. What quiet hours are, are times where the noise level cannot exceed your room. Any other hours are where you can have noise, but just be courteous to others. Quiet hours can be great, especially if you have a test or around the midterms/finals weeks. It isn't as great if you and friends just so happen to be having a mini dance party in your room, but as long as your RA can't hear it from halfway down the hall, it's okay to have some noise!

Next topic: Residential Assistants, or RAs.
RAs are in charge of different sections of your residential hall. RAs are required to make posters for your sections, get to know you guys, and to put on events. Yes, it is their job to make sure you guys have fun! Your RAs are there any time you need them - to talk about roommate issues, help with advice, or just to talk!

Once you move in, you are given your student ID. You do not want to lose your student ID. This is your life-line. It holds not only your meal plan, Sodexo and Owl bucks (something later on we'll talk about), but also is what you print in the library with, and is your key to entering your resident hall. Your ID is specific to your own resident hall, and no other one. So if you try to get into somebody else's dorm with your ID, you can't. You have to wait for your friend or whomever to let you in. Starting at 9pm to 1am, there are RAs sitting at the front desk checking IDs of people walking in. If you have a non-WSU guest, you need to sign them in and if you have a WSU guest, they have to have their ID checked by the RAs. There are also Institutional State Officers, or as we call them, ISOs, roaming around the dorms late into the night to make sure that everyone is okay. I'll talk more about our school's safety later on.

Speaking of guests, let's talk about the guest policy! Each roommate can have up to two guests for three nights a week. When you sign your guest in, you are responsible for them, so keep an eye on them!

Fun fact #1: Our campus and each of our resident halls have wi-fi. Whoo for wi-fi!
Fun fact #2: Each resident hall has a laundry room and kitchen! You have to pay to do laundry, fortunately, but printing is free!
Fun fact #3: Printing is free!

- Amanda