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not, they will receive a new roommate or be asked to relocate. Individual students will not berelocated to empty rooms. Empty rooms will be used to relocate pairs of roommates or as temporaryhousing for extreme roommate conflicts.During the months of December and January, the Department of Student Life requires that allstudents living in double, triple, or quad rooms—either alone or with less than capacity—prepare theroom for a new roommate, since new freshmen and transfer students will be arriving during the startof both interterm and spring term. This preparation will include having one half of the room set withan empty bed, desk, dresser and closet. Any rooms not set up in this way will be reset by a staffmember over the Christmas Break. Consequently, the student(s) already residing in that room will berequired to pay a $100 fine for not having prepared the room for a new roommate.The key to a successful roommate relationship is communication. Keeping the lines ofcommunication open will make the on-campus experience more enjoyable. If a roommate conflictdoes arise, it is important to act early, work together, and compromise in order to resolve the problem.Residents should use the Roommate Contract which is designed to help roommates avoid or workthrough conflicts and can be obtained from the Resident Director. If a mutually agreed uponcompromise cannot be reached by the roommates, they should request that someone from theResidence Life staff serve as a mediator to help work through the conflict. All students experiencingconflict will participate in a mediation session prior to any room changes being made. Oncemediation is completed—and if it is determined that there are irreconcilable differences—part of themediation session will be to determine which resident should relocate to another room. Studentsshould not assume that the student who brought the problem to the attention of the staff willautomatically be the student who moves. The Department of Student Life will work with the residentwho will be relocating to a new room to help find a new room and roommate; however, the studentwill need to be an active participant in this process. Relocating students will know better than theResidence Life staff what they are looking for in a roommate and therefore they must be activelyengaged in the process.Overview of the process to handle roommate situations:1. Discuss conflict with roommate; use the Roommate Contract as a tool (may be obtained fromthe Resident Director).2. If the discussion is not successful, contact a Residence Life staff person to set up a mediationsession.3. Mediation will usually involve developing a mutually agreed-upon contract; therefore if astudent does not follow that contract, he or she may be asked to move from the room.4. If mediation concludes that one roommate needs to be relocated, this roommate will beprovided a list of potential roommates in each residence hall. The staff will aid in helpingstudents discover these potential roommates.Room ChangesTypically, room changes are not permitted during the first two weeks of the Fall Semester. All roomchanges must originate with the current Resident Director and—in the case of roommate conflict—only after mediation has occurred. The Department of Student Life reserves the right to make roomassignments and to move a student to another residence hall on campus when—in its opinion—general living conditions for any resident or the well-being of Bridgewater College will be improvedby such a move; or if space is needed to accommodate roommate conflicts, new students, or for otherroommate situations. The Department of Student Life also reserves the right to move any studentwho continually breaks campus policy and is infringing on the rights of the other roommate(s).Failure to complete the appropriate paperwork before changing rooms may result in a $100 fine.32