Students noticed changes to the Waynesburg University housing application for next school year, which were due March 10, before any of the housing selections.

The Department of Student Services combined its own required forms into the housing application. In years past, student services would mail forms to students to aquire updates of emergency contacts and health insurance information during the summer. Assistant Dean of Student Services Jessica Sumpter said it was difficult to reach some students because they work at summer camps, and others disconnect during the summer vacation.

Matt Pioch, resident director of Thayer Hall and assistant to housing, said the process gave students less to complete for the university over the summer.

“We’ve added an application at the beginning of the process,” said Pioch. “[It] essentially just makes it easier for us to obtain things like health insurance and emergency contact numbers and things like that that kind of expedite the housing process, and so rather than getting them in July, we’re able to get it now in March.”

Sumpter explained that the updates would make it easier for students and administration.

“Whenever we have 1,400 undergrads, that’s a lot of paper, so that’s also kind of a benefit to this process is that it is saving some costs and saving some unnecessary printing,” said Sumpter.

Sophomore electronic media major Kyla Wolper worked in Student Services during the summer, and said that a lot of students did not reply to the requests with the old process.

“I feel like over the summer, students miss what they receive in the mail, and they don’t check their emails,” said Wolper. “Over the summer, a number of students did not even know they were supposed to turn in the information during the summer.”

Students used to have to sign the code of conduct when returning to school in the fall, but Sumpter said that the new housing application even included code of conduct signature—so the process was “streamlined.”

Sumpter said that the application process was not time consuming or drastically different in the long run.

“It doesn’t take any more than seven to 10 minutes to actually fill out the form, and that’s if you don’t have the information readily available,” said Sumpter.

Housing applications were due March 10, before any of the housing selections. Students had to complete the housing application before they could sign up for any type of housing, and a separate form will be available for commuters to submit the necessary information without completing signing the housing contract.