Housing

Residence halls house all class years of students. All residence hall rooms are furnished with a twin bed, desk, chair, chest of drawers for each student. Each room also has a bookshelf for students to use. Two wardrobes are built into each bedroom. On average, double room dimensions are approximately 11 1/2' x 17'. All rooms have carpeting, air conditioning, and cable outlets. Windows in the buildings have either built-in Venetian blinds or window shades.

Learn more details on Residence Life webpage or check out Messiah's Residence Life playlist on YouTube.

Incoming First-Year Students: Messiah has created a "first-year experience" and all first-year students live on the same floors/buildings as cohorts. All first-year students will live in one of the three first-year buildings.

Incoming Transfer Students (sophomores through seniors): Students who are sophomores through seniors will be assigned to live in traditional halls for at least the first semester. After the first semester, those students with at least 57 credits can move to the on-campus apartments or satellite houses.

See the housing rates page for complete, updated information.

Incoming first-year students are assigned based on enrollment deposit date and will be closely matched to other students as roommates according to the answers in the questionnaire section of the housing application. Our office attempts to meet as many of a student's requests regarding housing preference and mutual roommate requests as possible.

Incoming (upperclass) transfer students will be assigned to a room in the designated transfer residence hall unless the student has requested to live with a specific current student in our upperclass housing. If those floors fill up transfer students will be given the option of creating a supplemental triple room or being placed in other upperclass residence halls.

Room assignment changes: Due to constant changes in enrollment and new, incoming students, assignments will occur on a rolling basis through opening day in August. Therefore, your roommates or room assignment is subject to change. You may check your housing & roommate assignment on the Accepted Student Resources webpage to get the most updated information.

New, First-Year Students and First-Year Transfer Students: Yes; although first-year students (0-23 post-high school credits) can only room with another first-year student. This process takes place while completing the roommate-preference section of the Housing Application. All roommate requests must be mutual to be granted.

Upperclass Transfer Students: Possibly. Incoming transfer students (24 or more post high school credits) are assigned to live either on the transfer floor or in open/available spaces in the upperclass residence halls. A student can request to live with another incoming transfer student (who is not a first-year transfer status) or a current student. Assigning incoming transfers together can have some challenges since an empty room is not always available to put two transfer students together. We will make every effort to put transfer students with another transfer student.

Roommate Requests: All students seeking to room with another person (acquaintances, friends, fellow athletes or others pairs) should request each other in the roommate-preference section of the Housing Application. Non-mutual requests will not be assigned together.

Yes. All students will have at least one roommate unless they live in a single. Some students could have between one to four roommates depending on the type of room they are assigned. Messiah has the following room types: singles, doubles, designed triples, quads, quintets, supplemental triples and three-person or five-person apartments.

First-Year Students: Depending on the size of the incoming class and the availability of rooms reserved for first-year students on campus, there is a possibility that you will begin your college experience with three people in a supplemental triple room. Students in supplemental triples have three beds, desks and dressers provided in the room, but will need to share the two closets and bookshelves. As open spaces become available during the semester (through cancellations, withdrawals etc.), one person in the triple may have the opportunity to consider a move to a permanent space. 

As an educational institution of the Anabaptist tradition, Messiah University seeks to educate its students concerning the responsibility that Christian men and women possess as instruments of peace. The principle of living in a community with roommates provides Messiah students with opportunities to learn how this spiritual posture is lived out on a daily basis. When a problem arises amongst roommates, the University believes that it must seek to surround those in conflict with opportunities that possess reconciliation as the end goal. The Housing Change Request Form is designed to facilitate this process in collaboration with your Residence Life Educator.

Our first goal is to ensure that all students experience a variety of living styles and thus we like to see roommates personally work out all conflict. If at some point the roommates decide that they are making no progress themselves then they are asked to speak with a Resident Assistant (RA). The RAs are on each floor to assist students in successfully transitioning to life in the residence halls, which includes living with roommates. The residents will meet with the RA and discuss the disagreements they are having. In most cases this is informal and personal, i.e. in the rooms. The RA will attempt to sort through the conflict and work with the residents to map out a plan for a successful year as roommates. If there is still a major conflict within the room the situation is again presented to the RA, and the RA may try to help resolve the situation or refer roommates to the Resident Life Educator (RLE). The RLE is a live-in professional staff member, who oversees an entire building and supervises the RA staff. The RLE will then make an assessment of the situation at hand and work with the roommates to resolve the situation. At the point the RLE discovers that the conflict is severe enough to initiate a roommate switch he/she will present a Housing Change Request Form. This is a form the residents and RLE sign to indicate they have talked with all the roommates and agree that resolution attempts have failed and that a room change is the best solution. The RLE will work with the Director of Housing to determine available and suitable alternate living arrangements.

RA stands for Resident Assistant. An RA is a full-time student in a leadership position in the residence halls. At Messiah, it is the RA's primary responsibility to assist in building a sense of community within their respective residence halls, and also to uphold University policy and standards. The RA is responsible for developing programs and activities to challenge and enhance your college experience and is also available to listen when you need a friendly ear, to help you with facilities needs and to direct you to campus resources. An RA is on duty in each residence hall from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. every day during the academic year (when classes are in session) for emergencies or other student concerns. Each residence hall also has one Senior Resident Assistant (SRA). An SRA is also a full-time student, but one with greater experience and additional responsibility. SRAs perform all of the duties of an RA, but also serve as assistants to their respective RDs.

RLE stands for Residence Life Educator. An RLE is a professional staff member employed full-time by the University. The RLE lives in an apartment inside the residence hall for which he or she is responsible. This person is responsible for up to two buildings and for the training of her/his respective RA staff, including overseeing programming, maintaining community and adherence to University standards. The RLE also manages the hall facilities and budget and oftentimes provides guidance to students living in the halls. There is always an RLE on call, 24 hours, during the academic year (when classes are in session) to address emergencies or other student concerns.

An Apartment Residence Assistants is located in each section of the on-campus apartment buildings. Apartment RAs are full-time students who assist an RLE in addressing needs in the apartment communities, including overseeing programming, and maintaining community and adherence to University standards.

Each residence hall and apartment building is equipped with a laundry room, which contains HE (high efficiency) washers and dryers. Laundry costs are included in your housing cost. The University does not provide laundry services.

Please watch for information notifying you of your address and ship dates in early August. Learn more when you check out the Move-In Guide.

For our location, it is strongly recommended to use AT&T or Verizon Wireless because they have the best signal on campus overall. We see an increasing rate of complaints from those using carriers with poor cell service on campus (T-Mobile, Sprint and others).

Yes. The items listed below are prohibited in campus housing. See the Move-In Guide page for a more exhaustive list of what you can and can't bring.

• Halogen lamps and/or bulbs
• Five arm lamps and/or lamps with plastic lamp shades
• Toasters with exposed coils
• Refrigerators that are larger than three and a half (3.5) cubic feet
• Candles or incense
• Microwaves larger than compact-size
• Pets, with the exception of small non-carnivorous fish
• Firearms of any kind, and all other items classified as weapons
• Firecrackers, explosives, etc.
• Any other items that are in conflict with the University's identity or mission. Please refer to the Student Handbook for an explanation of housing policies

Please check your parents' homeowner's insurance to see if it covers your property while you are away at school. The University does not take responsibility for students' personal belongings even in the event of fire, flood or appliance failure. (Click here for information on CSI Insurance Agency's student personal property coverage.) If you are interested, please contact them at 888-411-4911. Another agency that will insure your belongings is National Student Services, Inc.

We recommend that you have renter's insurance when you're living on-campus. Most insurance companies offer renter's insurance and it is inexpensive, especially if it's combined with your auto insurance.

If you are unable to find an answer to your question in these FAQs, please contact the Office of Residence Life via email at housing@messiah.edu or by phone at 1-717-796-5239.