SEMO using social networking site to help pair roommates

By 10 a.m. Thursday, Julia Derr's dorm room was piled high with unopened boxes, clothes, towels, a small refrigerator and other items the freshman believed she would need to transform her new abode into a home.

The 18-year-old from Arnold, Mo., joined more than 1,100 first-year students moving into Southeast Missouri State University's residence halls.

Derr looked tired from the hauling and the morning heat, and there still was unpacking and organizing to do in her Towers East dorm room. Derr sighed at the thought.

"I'm going to have to take some of my stuff back home. I think I brought too much," she said.

She will bunk with Alicea Mahnken, 18, of Perryville, Mo., a freshman she met using a Web-based housing social networking site called RoommateClick. The site, rolled out by Southeast Missouri State University, one of two universities in the state to use it, is akin to a combination of Facebook and eHarmony for prospective roommates. It matches the interests and lifestyle preferences of members, striving to create a roommate match made in heaven -- or at least online.

"It's best to be honest so you get, like, the right roommate," Derr said of the questions the social network poses. Members are asked everything from where they would like to live to how they prefer to study (Are they studious or do they like to party?). The network serves as a filter, helping members weed out unsuitable candidates.

"People look at your profile and e-mail you if they're interested," Derr said.

After members connect and agree to room together, the university finds the appropriate living space. But students effectively control a process long the domain of residence life coordinators.

Roommateclick was launched in 2006 by Lifetopia, a provider of housing software for higher education. It has attracted a growing lineup of contracts with universities, including Missouri State University in Springfield.

Southeast signed on in a pilot program last year, with a limited scope of some 200 students, according to Bruce Skinner, Southeast's director of Residence Life, Housing and Dining. Skinner could not provide numbers on successful matches.

The program has more than tripled this year, with some 600 students using the roommate matching service, Skinner said.

Skinner said the majority of Southeast students find success in their living arrangements, based on the high number of returning students who request placement with their freshman roommates. The pairings with the highest rate of conflict, Skinner said, tend to involve longtime friends.

Lots of helpers make moving into residence halls much easier for new students Thursday, Aug. 19, 2010 at Southeast Missouri State University. (Fred Lynch)

"They get here and, suddenly, they thought they passionately knew this person and now they passionately hate this person," he said.

The residence halls Thursday were quickly filling up with new roommates, unpacking in dorm rooms, figuring out where to put what and getting their first taste of college.

"I always feel for these students, because I know how nervous and excited and anxious and homesick and just this whole bundle of emotions [they are] -- and their parents, too," said Theresa Haug-Belvin, director of Student Transitions.

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