Executive Summary
The IUPUI Housing and Residence Life Department is interested in boosting their students’ roommate and overall housing satisfaction, as well as finding modern pairing methods and conflict resolution strategies that current and incoming students can use.
This report will benefit IUPUI’s HRL by giving our client and other coordinators recommendations on the best practices pre, during, and post roommate selection process. This also benefits the students who use on-campus housing because they are being paired using the best possible methods of roommate matching and have access to resources that equip them to deal with inevitable conflict during their university years.
The findings in this report are based on a local study conducted by the team of student consultants and online research conducted through academic sources. The local study was produced and the results were gathered using Qualtrics, a survey tool that generates analyses and graphs based on the respondents’ answers. The survey consisted of 10 questions, ranging from roommate conflict, personality tests, and anonymous pairing. The survey was sent out to current IUPUI students.
Online database research was collected using ProQuest Central and Academic Search Premier, leading multidisciplinary research databases whose access is paid for by IUPUI. Another tool used was Google Scholar, a free web search engine that searches for scholarly literature. The information gathered from this research helped shape our recommendations and gave rise to the focus and scope of the local study.
Analysis Part #3 Conflict Management
No matter how the students are paired or who the student is paired with, the big three traits of cleanliness, illicit activities, and the frequency of guests remain some of the biggest threats to roommate survival.We sought to satisfy more college roommate experiences by implementing conflict management instruction.
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The Stress of College Life and its Effects
Conflict management, or the lack thereof in new students with roommates, appears to be the critical factor of why roommate relationships fail. The young and inexperienced students have not yet had to contend with very many different types of people all living in the same space and occupying it differently. Coupled with the stress of having to handle new people in the same environment, is a new student having to work around a new sleeping schedule, potentially difficult classes, strict professors, and other additional stressors that make living with others tedious. There are methods that one could use to alleviate this stress on their own, as observed in Bland et al’ study on stress tolerance. “Ten coping factors (out of 29) were significantly statistically relevant to college students with high stress tolerance.” (Bland, 2012). This means that the other 19 methods of stress coping for young college students were ineffective. By combining these effects with the inability to properly engage and discuss conflict with their roommates, students are being set-up to fail.
Conflict management is the primary solution to roommate dissatisfaction. Teaching college students that there are safe, effective, and normal ways to handle conflict between groups of people is critical. Instead of allowing a roommate to bring over as many guests as possible, have a clear discussion with them as to how you feel about the issue. Without instructing them or having the RA’s assist with the new students, they will struggle. "They don't know how to, or are afraid to confront…..the roommate. Instead, they drop little hints, and when their roommate doesn't get the hints, the situation worsens." (Scott, 1998). We have concluded that the best method for alleviating roommate conflict is by having both incoming students and RA's complete a Conflict Management Course.
The statistics of the “Big 3” Factors of Roommate Success
College roommate satisfaction seems to rely on three main factors of college living. These factors are guests, cleanliness, and the use of illicit substances in the shared living space. The Housing Group performed a local study of 101 participants through a qualtrics survey distributed via link. Several classrooms of random students with multiple grades and majors were asked to complete a survey that asked questions pertaining to roommate satisfaction and pairing methods, as well as hypothetical roommate conflict situations. From the survey, this information was deemed relevant to our work on roommate and college life satisfaction.
Roommate Cleanliness
A question was posed as to what the survey taker would do if their roommate was having difficulty keeping the share living space clean. Sixty-two percent of survey responses were “I would confront them about their cleanliness.” A surprising 29 percent of people responded that they “would not clean up their roommates mess nor would they seek help from an RA.” A small 7% of people said they would “clean up their roommates mess and not say anything to their roommate.” The remaining percentage of people, a meager 2%, would immediately report them to the resident RA in order to force their roommate to perform their portion of chores.
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Figure 3.1 Percentages from the survey question, “How would you deal with your roommate not helping to keep the shared spaces clean?”, out of 101 responses
Guests of the Roommate
A question posed by the survey was related to roommates and the type of guests they have as well as the frequency of the guests. This question was slightly different than the others, as it was a select all that apply questions, therefore allowing the survey takers to select multiple answers at a time. Over half of the participants surveyed, 54 percent, said that “anyone is welcome at any time.” This information comes as a surprise, considering that many college roommates struggle with guests as a means of achieving satisfaction. However, this information, when paired with the response of “only if its on the weekends”, the responses shoot up to 90 percent. This then implies that people are rather okay with having guests over but only at times when it is convenient for them. This data is furthered solidified when only 6 percent of people say that “I would prefer to not have guests in my apartment.” When paired with other responses, the percentage falls even lower, netting only 50% combined.
Figure 3.2. Percentages from the survey question, “How do you feel about your roommate having guests over?”, out of 100 responses.
Roommate Satisfaction concerning Alcohol and other Illicit Substances
A question was asked that pertained to the use of alcohol and other illicit substances in the apartment. This question was particularly interesting, as alcohol and other illicit substances are illegal and therefore should not be in on-campus living spaces. Even if a person is of age to purchase alcohol, IUPUI is a dry-campus and therefore there can be no alcohol allowed on the campus either. Moving on to the responses; when asked what they would do if their roommate was taking part of these activities, 34 percent of people surveyed responded with “that sounds like a blast, i'm joining!” Where as 14 percent of people would in some way want this behavior to end, with 6 percent of that 14 percent going immediately to an RA. Leaving the other 8 percent to politely asking their roommate to stop. What is most critical is that 52 percent of people are okay with this behavior if “they are responsible and not doing it illegally”. As I have previously mentioned, this activity is not only not allowed on the IUPUI campus but it is illegal if they are undergage. Therefore the students should not tolerate this behavior and ask their roommate to stop, lumping together these similar responses a total of 66 percent of people who would prefer their roommate to not engage in illicit activity or drink alcohol within their shared apartment.
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Figure 3.3. Percentages from the survey question, “How would you feel about your roommate using alcohol or other substances?”, out of 100 responses.
Roommate Conflict Management Course Interest
This question focused directly at the center of our third recommendation and that is introducing some kind of conflict management course for incoming freshman to take. It would be similar to the already required alcohol, drugs, and sexual safety courses the university has in place. It would be either a required course or it could be purely recommended for those students wanting to gain an advantage in handling conflict, not only with their roommate but also with their new living situation as well as professors. A number of people responded to the question of having to take a new conflict management course as being comfortable taking it for many different reasons. Fifty-four percent of people surveyed said that they would appreciate the help the course may offer (19%) where as some would only take it only if they had to (32%). Only 3 percent of people said they would take the course but they would feel like they would still be unable to solve conflicts effectively. However, 46 percent of people surveyed stated “I don’t need to take the course, I know how to handle conflicts.” This is in direct contrast with what our group has found through research, that young students are inexperienced at handling conflicts effectively and appropriately. So the assumption can be made that while these people believe they know how to handle conflict, they don't know how to handle it appropriately and in a manner that results in the least amount of residual conflict and achieves the maximum amount of satisfaction from both parties.
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Figure 3.4. Percentages from the survey question, “Would you be willing to taking a course in conflict management before the school starts to increase your overall satisfaction with your roommate?”, out of 100 responses.
