A new online system has been put in place for residence hall room selection that will deliver a more visual and interactive experience for Southeast Missouri State University students.

"We upgraded our software," said Gwendolyn Duncan, the coordinator for administrative operations in the Office of Residence Life. "We have probably for the last eight years, I think, had the opportunity to offer students an online room selection process, but it was a little hard to navigate in our old system. So our vender recently went to a total Web platform, and with this change we've been able to create maps of our residence halls so that the process is more visual."

The new system works on multiple platforms, including smartphones and tablets. It will also be available on multiple browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Chrome.

"Any electronic device that gets Wi-Fi and can get an image can use our platform, so I'm super excited about that," Duncan said.

Duncan added that the system has also become easier to explore and less cumbersome.

"The process is one that went from 10 screens that the student had to navigate through, down to four or five," Duncan said.

When logging onto the room selection portal, students will first have the option to choose their roommates or suitemates.

"In the past the department would have to generate these emails and pull in student IDs and provide all of that student's information, so that they would be prepared for the experience. With the new system, if you want to be roommates with a buddy, then if you have that buddy's cell phone number, then you can search for them now with their cell phone number and locate that individual and lock them in."

Duncan added that students can still search by their Southeast ID. She also said that potential roommates and suitemates need to share a pin number to be placed in a room by another person. She said that this is to have proof that everyone wants to live together. The pin numbers can be created in the residence hall housing portal.

"The system will only show you rooms that accommodate your group size. So if there was you and your suitemates and you are looking for a completely open suite ... then it would only display spaces that you can all fit."

The next page shows a full campus map with each residence hall displaying its availability through a color-coded classification. Duncan said they chose to use an aerial map so that new students would be able to be better informed about where each building is located.

"All you have to do is look at the map and find the building that you want to look at," Duncan said. "Once you open up the building, it will show you visually what floors have beds available for your gender. So then you can look now and go 'I'm shooting for the fifth floor,' and if it's in green or blue then you're good. And then you can look and see where the beds are still available on that floor."

Green means that beds are available, blue means beds are available for your gender and red means that beds aren't available for your gender. If there is no color, it no longer has beds available for either gender.

"If you know some people, whether you like them or not, that you want to be close to or distant from, you can now go over the red beds and see that they've been assigned and see who is in those other beds," Duncan said. "So you can decide whether this is a community you want to live in from the beginning. You can look at people's majors, you can look to see whether you are going to be on a floor with a lot of smokers or night owls."

Duncan added that you can also see people's ages, so you can avoid living with someone significantly younger or older than you.

After choosing their room, students will then have to choose their meal plan before finalizing their selections.

"We've spent a lot of time building it, but now that it's ready to go, I cannot wait for them to use it. I think it's going to totally increase their experience in a positive way."

Although the priority housing registration is due March 1, Duncan said that the only penalty is how early you can choose your room.

"The big deal about the March 1 date is that our room selection process is date driven, so when you have an early contract, then that means that you are one of the first ones to get in," Duncan said.

The first students to be able to choose their room submitted their contracts by December. The housing portal opened for them on Feb. 22. Duncan explained that the next group would be those who submitted in January, followed by those in February.

"If we can get you to making a commitment to living on campus early, then you have a better chance of getting what you want," Duncan said. "However, if you haven't made a commitment, you don't have to fill out a housing contract. Students can fill out a housing contract up until the day that they walk in the door at the beginning of the fall semester. The options are limited, however that flexibility is there."

Duncan explained that residence life has already received more than 1,300 housing contracts, but an additional 1,500 beds are still available. She said that most students get their first choice when it comes to buildings because the demand is fairly evenly split between them.