One of Meghann Mehrtens’ roommates moved out of her Beauregard Hall dorm without a 24-hour notice. But Mehrten said their differences made her roommate’s sudden move understandable.Mehrtens, mass communication freshman, said her rooming situation could have been avoided with a service to match roommates based on similar interests and living habits.”My roommate was very minimalist, and she doesn’t like noise in the morning,” she said. “Whenever I woke up, I felt like I was disturbing her in the morning.”Mehrtens said she wishes her and her roommates had been matched in a better way.During the Student Government’s fall election, a referendum proposing a roommate matching survey to more successfully match students in dorms passed. Of the 3,387 students who voted on the roommate matching survey referendum, 91 percent were in favor.A Roommate Matching Committee was formed to research implementation of the survey during the fall 2007 semester. The committee included SG senators, Freshmen Leadership Council members and Residence Hall Association members. Brooksie Bonvillain, University Center for Freshmen Year senator, and UCFY College Council Treasurer Samantha Navarra suggested the survey idea to SG. Bonvillain and Navarra were both members of the Freshmen Leadership Council when Bonvillain said she noticed a need for a better student dorm placement procedure.”As a freshman living in a residence hall and working in the Office of Residential Life, I saw the amount of roommate changes that were requested,” Bonvillain said.Jill Walters, assignments manager for Residential Life, said ResLife usually sees room change requests based on roommate issues or just a desire to move to another building. She said there have been 42 change requests within the same residence hall and 25 hall relocations this semester.”When you have this big of a system, you’re going to have some students who aren’t matched correctly,” Walters said. “The number of room change requests this semester is par with the numbers from past semesters.”Bonvillain said a friend at Appalachian State University showed her ASU’s roommate matching form, and she thought a similar concept would benefit LSU students.The questions Bonvillain said she would like to see on the survey include sleeping and study habits.”It’s a simple concept of asking questions such as ‘Do you like to wake up early?’ and ‘Can you study with background noise?'” she said. Now the Roommate Matching Committee is looking to find an appropriate plan. Jay High, communications manager for Residential Life, said the ResLife office has been researching private contractors specializing in this type of roommate matching survey. He said he was not sure when the surveys would be used.”We certainly understand the benefits of that system,” he said. “We do not know if it will be 2009, or if it will be 2010.”—-Contact Sean Griffin at [email protected]