Live where you Learn: New Student Guide to Living On Campus

Residence Life and Housing provides secure, welcoming and engaging living environments that encourage and support the academic and personal success of residential students.

Congratulations!

We are so glad you have chosen to make SUNY Oswego's Residence Life and Housing your home away from home. We look forward to having you join our on-campus residential community.

Residence hall living creates an opportunity for students to feel a sense of belonging in a comfortable, educational, diverse, and caring community. Our Student Learning and Success Programming incorporates over 400 programs that blend knowledge and experiences both inside and outside the classroom.

We encourage you to take advantage of our live-on experiences. Get involved, meet others in your hall, join hall government, get a job in the halls. We'll help you to make connections and create a sense of community.

We invite you to explore this guide and our website to learn more about living options on campus, what you can and cannot bring to campus, and employment opportunities.

We are ecstatic that you will be attending SUNY Oswego. We are anxiously awaiting your arrival to campus this fall.

Sincerely,

Shaun N. Crisler,
Director for Residence Life and Housing

The College believes that immersion in the educational environment is the preferred experience for new students. Therefore, all full-time undergraduate students who will need to establish an Oswego-area residence in order to attend the college are required to live on campus to the extent that facilities are available and utilized*.

Students generally exempted from this requirement are those who:

• Will continue to reside with their parent(s) or legal guardian(s);
• Will continue to reside in their official residence, which is separate from that of their parent(s) or legal guardian(s), and at which they had resided for at least three consecutive months prior to their acceptance of the admissions offer from the college;
• Are married; or
• Are twenty-one (21) years of age as of September 1 for fall admission or January 1 for spring admission.

SUBMIT A REQUEST FOR EXEMPTION

*Due to current facility availability, students who fulfill specific criteria will be considered as having fulfilled the Housing Requirement and would no longer be required to live in college housing; these students are those who first enrolled at SUNY Oswego as:

• first year/freshmen students and have lived in residence at SUNY Oswego for four (4) consecutive semesters (fall and spring) if admitted in the fall or three (3) semesters if admitted in the spring.

-or-

• transfer students and have lived in residence at SUNY Oswego for two (2) consecutive semesters (Fall and Spring) if admitted in the Fall or one (1) semester if admitted in the Spring.

At this point, you should have logged into myHousing.oswego.edu to accept the terms of the Housing and Dining Contract and complete the New Student Housing Application including any roommate requests and preferences for specific residence halls. After the majority of new student room assignments are made (July), you can access the info at myHousing; you'll be able to see your actual room assignment and the name and email for your roommate! We encourage you to contact your roommate(s) to become acquainted and start planning what each of you will be bringing for your room. Although entering students (first year, transfer and readmitted) are given no guarantee of assignment to a specific building or room, every attempt is made to honor students' requests. The Department of Residence Life and Housing will attempt to honor roommate requests when all students involved have requested each other (electronically or in writing) before any of the involved students have been assigned to a room.

The College will assign roommates for students who do not express roommate preferences. In general, entering students are assigned rooms in accordance with the date on which the College receives their housing intent. The College does not discriminate on the basisi of race, religion, national origin, gender identity or sexual orientation in these assignments.

A note about room assignments:
If you have not received your room assignment by August 6th or have questions, please contact the Residence Life and Housing Office at reslife@oswego.edu or call 315.312.2246, Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Residence hall rooms are furnished with a bed, dresser, desk, desk chair, and closet for each resident. Room furnishings also include a floor lamp, wastebaskets, one mirror, and blinds. While this setup is standard, by the start of classes each room will begin to develop its own "look." Coordinating the furnishings and arrangements for your room is a good opportunity to become better acquainted with your new roommates(s). Some things you may want to discuss are:

• Sharing belongings
• Social and academic expectations and desires
• Study and sleep habits
• Who is bringing a TV, electronic equipment, etc.

All residential communities are part of the SUNY Oswego Wireless Network. In addition, all resident rooms have ResNet, Oswego's Residential Network, which provides a dedicated wired connection to the campus network. One data connection is provided to each resident. If you have further questions, please contact the CTS Help Desk at help@oswego.edu.

Each residence hall has at least one television lounge with cable service and a large-screen TV. Student bedrooms are also equipped with cable TV service, but students must provide their own TV and coaxial cable. SUNY Oswego recently upgraded the channel line-up received from our service provider, Spectrum. Most channels are high definition digital, and the service does not require a set-top box cable receiver; however, your TV must be equipped with a QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) tuner. Most TVs purchased after 2010 have QAM tuners but refer to your TV's specification to be sure. The complete channel line-up and more information can be found at https://www.oswego.edu/cts/cable-tv-setup.

Clothing

Oswego weather can be unpredictable so pack for the seasons! Given that dresser and closet space are limited, consider bringing clothes that can be layered as the seasons change from summer to fall to winter. Over winter breakm, you can plan to change your seasonal wardrobes.

Bed and Bath Linen

You will need to bring your own pillow, pollowcases, mattress pad, sheets, blankets, bedspread, towels and washcloths. All SUNY Oswego regular residence hall mattresses are 80 inches long, 6.5 inches deep and 36 inches wide; they require "extra long" twin sheets.

Other items

While shoping, please use the SUNY Oswego approved checklist found at: 

www.oswego.edu/reslife/what-bring

Note: Lists provided at stores may include items that are prohibited in our residence halls. See below for samples from our approve list.

*Compact refrigerators must not exceed 6 cubic feet and operate on no more than 2.0 amps. Residence Life & Housing has refrigerators for rent. Visit our website at: https://www.oswego.edu/residence-life-and-housing/forms-and-policies

The following items are prohibited. If found in the residence halls, they will be confiscated and disciplinary action may be taken.

• Mattress toppers
• Air conditioners
• Candles/wax burners/incense
• Cinder blocks/bed risers
• Extension cords
• Hoverboards
• Lamps: oil burning, halogen, lava, torchiere/tree-style, multi-head or "octopus-style," & lamps without outlets
• Microwave/micro-refrigerators
• Toaster/toaster ovens
• Flags, banners, tapestries
• Other cooking appliances, such as: sandwich makers, grilling machines, hotplates, slow cookers, crock pots, rice cookers, air fryers, electric skillets
• Handmade furniture that fails to meet the NY fire safety codes

Confiscated items will not be returned!

Please note: The list of prohibited lamps above and examples are for reference only and are not intended to show every possible lamp that is prohibited.

Keep in mind that overloading of electrical circuits is a common cause of electrical fires. In order to ensure a safe environment, the use of electrical extension cords is strictly prohibited in residence halls and academic buildings on campus. However, circuit-breaker-protected multi-outlet power strips that are UL or ETL-approved can be used. "Daisy chaining" (connecting one or more of these power strips to each other) is not permitted.

Yes, definitely!

The College assumes no responsibility for loss, theft or damage to personal property, even if that loss was caused by the failure of a College mechanical system such as a pipe bursting. We strongly encourage you to have insurance coverage before you begin residency. Typically, such coverage may be provided by extension of a hove owner's policy, renter's insurance or insurance specifically for college students. MAny vendors offer low cost insurance specifically directed to the college environment. Two such vendors are College Student PErsonal Property Insurance (www.nssi.com) and CSI (www.CollegeStudentInsurance.com).

The standard bed setup is 35 inches high and allows for 28 inches of storage space below the bed (see below).

Mattresses are XL twin providing more room to be comfortable. 

Students may bring additional storage totes ro drawers to place under the bed or in the closet.

Although the actual dimensions of rooms vary from building to building, the average square footage is 185. In order to plan for the set up of your room, we have provided diagrams and measurements of rooms in each residence hall below.

Each residence hall has a front desk that is open daily. Students are employed as Desk Attendants to provide information and services, such as the following: processing mail and packages; providing residents with temporary keys if they are locked out of their rooms; loaning of board games, sports equipment (i.e., pool cues, ping pong paddles), cooking supplies, vacuum cleaners, snow shovels, brooms, and dustpans.

All halls have DVD players and DVDs available for loan; some halls also have current video game systems available at the front desk. Each hall also has a microwave overn for resident use.

Mail

Each resident is assigned a mailbox located near the front desk of each residence hall. Mail is received and sorted at the front desk Monday through Friday. Mail delivery will work most efficiently if mail is addressed as indicated below.

In most halls, each student has their own mailbox; in these halls (Cayuga, Hart, Johnson, Riggs, Scales, Waterbury and The Village), the mailbox to students in these halls, be sure to include the student's mailbox number in the address.

*In Funnelle, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca HAlls, roommates share a mailbox; in these halls, the mailbox numbers are the same as the room numbers. To send mail to students in these halls, please include the student's room number in the address.

Please note that the College cannot be responsible for cash or valuables sent through the mail.

Residence Hall Stree Addresses

The current 911 street addresses for each of the residence halls on campus is as follows:

Packages

Packages sent to residents are received at the front desk of each residence hall. If a package comes for you, you'll receive an email instructing you to pick up your package at the desk. Shipping via US Postal Service is available at the Oswego Post Office.

Each residence hall is equipped with laundry facilities. Cost for use is prepaid as a fee on the student's College bill.

We do not accept shipments prior to our announced arrival date for residents. If you must make shipments to campus, please plan accordingly and include your full College address.

SUNY Oswego participates in the mandatory Oswego County recycling program. All students are required to routinely bring all recyclables and trash to a Recycling Room located in the basement of each residence hall.

Hart, Oneida (closed 2021-2022), Scales and Waterbury Halls have a computer lab that is open to residents of the hall. This in-hall facility allows ready access to computers, printers, and the campus network. All other halls have a printer available at the front desk.

In order to ensure reasonable security, there are policies and procedures in place to govern access to the buildings, locking and unlocking of building doors, and monitoring of visitor s and guests. The specifics of these procedures (and all other policies and procedures) are listed in the Resident Student Handbook. 

The Residence Life and Housing program at Oswego strives to provide students with a safe, well-maintained, and attractive living environment supportive of the educational mission of the College. Students living in residence have the opportunity for informal learning through contact with peers, staff, and faculty. The residential experience provides students with ready access to the intellectual and social events and organizations that are a vital part of the liberal arts college environment.

Each residence hall is staffed by a team of professional, student and custodial employees. Together with the residents and other College personnel, they work to provide the positive living experience at the core of our department's mission.

Each hall has a Residence Hall Director, a full-time professional who lives in the residence hall. Additionally, buildings of 400 or more residents and Johnson Hall have Assistant Hall Directors (graduate students who also live in the hall).

Each hall also has Resident Student Staff (RSS) who are RAs (Resident Assistants) or RMs (Resident Mentors). These undergraduate and graduate students are employed and trained by the Department of Residence Life & Housing to provide a quality living and learning experience for residents. They live directly on the resident floors and serve as role models, helpers, counselors, administrators and mentors.

Furthermore, RSS enforces College policies to ensure that the health, safety and rights of all individuals are maintained. In addition, RMs (Johnson Hall) have academic duties related to the special programs in their respective buildings. The front desks, recycling rooms, and computer labs (if applicable) are staffed by student employees. The Desk Attendants and Recycling Technicians (otherwise known as Student Operations Services Staff or "SOS'' play a very important role in the functioning of the hall. Many halls will be hiring to fill vacancies in these positions in the fall.

Our residence halls are also staffed by custodians seven days per week throughout the fall and spring semesters. Together with Facilities, Maintenance and Operations staff, they ensure the cleaning and maintenance of our halls are in compliance with a schedule of standards and routines. Copies of these standards are available at each residence hall front desk and the Residence Life and Housing Office, 303 Culkin Hall.

The staff who work directly in the residence halls are supported and supervised by the Department's Central Office Staff and the Leadership Team, which includes the Assistant Vice President for Residence Life and housing, Associate Directors, Assistant Directors, and Community Development Specialist. Each of these professionals has served as a residential educator in college environments for many years. They are committed to student growth and development as well as the training and enhancement of our professional and paraprofessional staff.

Residence Life and Housing operates two on-campus fitness centers. Cooper Fitness Center is located between Hart and Funnelle Halls, and Glimmerglass Fitness Center is located between Oneida and Onondaga Halls. Under the direction of a full-time manager and two assistant managers, the centers are staff by over 65 well-trained undergraduate students.

Both Fitness Centers are equipped with state of the art free weights, Cybex circuits, cardiovascular equipment (including treadmills, elliptical trainers, etc.), and offer a wide variety of group exercise classes. Free Personal Training services are also available and Fitness Center staff plan and facilitate several fun special events and presentations throughout the academic year.

Non-resident membership costs vary according to the length of time a student lived on campus. The rates for resident students for the 2021-2022 academic year have not yet been determined. For more information, visit oswego.edu/fitness or use #iamoswegofit.

The residential alcohol policy is governed by M. Alcohol Policy under Student Conduct Policies in the Student Handbook.

The College permits individual consumption and possession of alcoholic beverages by individuals who have attained 21 years-of-age and prohibits consumption and possession by persons under 21; this includes, but is not limited to, possession of empty alcohol containers. If, at any time, alcohol is found in a residence hall, room, suite or apartment, all individuals in the presence of alcohol (i.e., guests, visitors, residents, etc.) may be found in violation of this policy. 

Consumption from or possession of open containers of alcohol is prohibited in public areas of residential facilities. Group consumption of alcohol in residential facilities may occur only at registered events as explained in campus guidelines. Drinking contests/games and all other forms of excessive drinking are prohibited in residential facilities.

Residence Life and Housing's policy on appliances reflects an effort to find a balance between the typical resident's use of their assigned room and the need for health and safety standards. 

All electrical appliances must be UL/ETL-approved and must be in good working order. Air conditioners, space heaters and baseboard units of any type, except as may be provided by the College, are prohibited.

The appliances appropriate for use in resident rooms include...

• Lamps
• Computers
• Hair dryers
• Compact refrigerators
• Televisions
• Stereos

Residence hall rooms are more than bedrooms; however, they are not appropriate for meal preparation. Appliances used for meal preparation (such as microwave ovens) which operate at cooking temperatures are prohibited because they compromise the health and safety of the residents of the building. Residents in residence halls may not possess any food-preparation appliances except:

• Blenders
• Popcorn poppers
• Coffee makers
• Hot pots

Those appliances are permitted only if they do not have exposed heating elements and are UL/ETL-approved.

Because all Village townhouses have full kitchens, Village residents are allowed to possess other food preparation appliances, provided they are UL/ETL-approved. 

Any prohibited appliance found in resident rooms, suites or apartments will be confiscated by Residence Life and Housing staff and will not be returned to the owner.

It is the residents’ responsibility to care for the condition of their assigned living units as well as other public areas including, but not limited to:

• Bathrooms
• Elevators
• Corridors
• Laundry rooms
• Lounges
• Their furnishings and equipment.

Theft or littering of, or damage to, college property is prohibited. Students engaging in such behavior may be subject to college disciplinary action and/or arrest and will be held financially and legally responsible.

Residents will be held financially and legally responsible for the condition of their assigned living units and assigned contents. The removal of College-owned furniture from a resident’s living unit or from a public area without staff authorization may result in a replacement charge and/or other disciplinary action.

Structural modifications to the residential facilities, including the installation of wires or cords outside resident living units, are prohibited without prior written authorization from the Assistant Vice President for Residence Life and Housing. As part of their responsibility, residents of a facility are responsible for the actions of their guests whether or not those guests are students at SUNY Oswego.

Disruptive behavior including:

1. Harassment or creating a hostile environment through discrimination, intimidation, ridicule, or insult toward any person;
2. Acts of bias targeted toward a person or group;
3. Physical abuse, assault and/or battery;
4. Threats toward or intimidation of any person, or intentionally or recklessly causing harm or reasonable apprehension of harm;
5. Creation of a condition or situation that endangers mental or physical health;
6. Conduct which inhibits the peace or safety of members of the College community*;
7. Conduct related to the use, possession, or distribution of alcohol or other drugs

Are unacceptable and subject to disciplinary action.

*Students are prohibited from playing sports or rough-housing in the halls as this may disrupt the living/learning environment. Hall sports include, but are not limited to, tossing, bouncing, or kicking a ball or frisbee, roller blading, biking, using a scooter, using nerf guns, water guns or water balloons.

The residential alcohol policy is governed by N. Drug Policy in the Student Handbook.

The use, possession, distribution or manufacture of controlled substances is prohibited on College premises. The possession and/or use of marijuana in one’s living unit is a violation of New York State Law, and any consumption of marijuana in a public area is a criminal offense. If, at any time, drugs are found in a residence hall, room, suite or apartment, all individuals in the presence of drugs (i.e., guests, visitors, residents, etc.) may be found in violation of this policy. Prohibited drugs or drug-related paraphernalia can be confiscated and may be used as evidence in campus conduct and/or criminal proceedings.

An individual’s right to privacy is important in a residence hall community setting. The College expects students and their guests to respect the reasonable expectations of privacy of other individuals within the community.

Students and their guests are not permitted to make or attempt to make an audio or video recording of private, non-public conversations, informal gatherings, and/or meetings without the knowledge and consent of all participants subject to such recordings. This includes, but is not limited to, making, attempting to make, transmitting, or attempting to transmit audio or video of any person(s) in bathrooms, showers, bedrooms, common areas within suites, or other premises where there is an explicit expectation of privacy.

Filming/recording in or into any area of a residence hall/village townhouse without prior permission from Residence Life & Housing is prohibited. The uses of undisclosed or hidden recording devices are also prohibited, as is the transmission and/or distribution of any such recordings. Permission to film/record in or into a residence hall/Village Townhouse may be granted in certain circumstances and in certain locations. Please reach out to us at reslife@oswego.edu  for more information and/or to apply for permission.

All individuals are required to evacuate the building upon activation of the fire alarm system. Theft of improper use of fire fighting, detection, and/or alarm equipment is prohibited. Setting fire is prohibited. Possession and/or ignition of combustible materials (including, but not limited to, candles, incense and wax warmers) and suspending combustible materials (such as tapestries, curtains, flags, fishnets, etc.) is also prohibited. Additional furniture, decorations and other items that increase the flammability of living units or public areas may be prohibited at the discretion of Residence Life and Housing staff. Examples of prohibited items include: hoverboards; mattress toppers; halogen, lava, multi-head/octopus/tree-style, oil-burning and torchiere-style lamps. The complete policy, including all strictly prohibited items and practices, is outlined in the Resident Student Handbook.

Resident students may host guests according to the Guest Policy outlined in the Resident Student Handbook. Guests are any person entering the residential community to which they are not assigned. Guests and hosts must observe the registration requirements of each residence hall and the resident host assumes full responsibility for their guiest's behavior. The presence of such guests shall not deny access to or entry into the room or suite by any resident thereof, not shall visitation cause any undue hardship on any other resident of the room, suite, or building, No resident is permitted to have a guest(s) without the advance approval of all roommates. Guests are only permitted up to 72 consecutive hours and a maximum of 2 such visits per month. Cohabitation is not permitted.

This policy is subject to change to meet the campus COVID-19 policies.

Guests must complete a Visitor Registration online.

Sunday through Thursday nights, quiet hours begin at 10:00 p.m. and end at 10:00 a.m. the following morning. Friday and Saturday nights, quiet hours begin at 12:00 a.m. (midnight) and continue until 10:00 a.m. the following morning. Courtesy hours are observed 24 hours per day. Individual halls and living units may extend quiet hours or establish specific additional quiet hours at their discretion and/or through the Community Living Agreement. Quiet hours are observed 24 hours per day during the week before and the week of final examinations. Residents are expected to defer to approved activity at all times.

Residence Life and Housing prohibits residents and their guests from bringing pets/animals into residential communities. Fish in aquariums up to 20 gallons are permitted.

Students requesting service or emotional support animals should contact the Residence Life and Housing office for more information.

SUNY Oswego is a tobacco-free and smoke-free campus. Smoking of any kind and other uses of tobacco products on campus, at extensions campuses, at all indoor and outdoor events, College-sponsored programs and activities off campus, in personally-owned vehicles parked on campus, and all vehicles and equipment owned, leased or operated by the College and its affiliate organizations is strictly prohibited. Use of tobacco products other than smoking products and other smoking apparatus such as pipes, hookahs, and e-cigarettes, etc. is also prohibited. For more information, go to OzQuits.

All kinds of sales and solicitation by students or private commercial enterprise in residential facilities are prohibited without the prior approval of the Residence Life and Housing Office and the appropriate residential community student government. 

Well, at this point, you may not want to think about where you will be living during your second year at SUNY Oswego! So, let us say just this: as a returning student for the fall of 2022, you will be participating in a Room Selection Process in early spring of 2022. The process will begin with acceptance of the terms of the Housing and Dining Contract and completion of the New Student Housing Application.

Good Luck and Have Fun!

Parking, Handicap, Bus Stops, Construction

Find the campus map online at oswego.edu/about/visit/maps/campus