UIS Housing Webinar: Secure Your On-Campus Experience! 2025

Good evening.

Hello everybody, welcome to UIS housing webinar securing your on campus housing. My name is Lisa McGuire. I'm the director of new student orientation and parent relations. I'm really excited to have you all with us today. Umm, we're gonna let folks kind of join in and get connected. Uh, while we're waiting, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourselves in the chat.

Tell us who you are and where you're from.

Good evening, If you're just joining us, this is the UIS Housing webinar Securing your on campus Housing. We'll also talk a little bit about housing exemptions for students planning on commuting, UMM, and the applying for housing process. Glad you could join us this evening. We're gonna wait another minute as people are still joining in.

Why don't you introduce yourself in the chat, tell us who you are and where you're from, where you're joining us from this evening.

We have two special guests this evening. My name is Lisa Maguire. I'm the director of New Student Orientation and parent Relations. I have Hannah Yakino joining in for residence life and Nick Wagner. Oh, here we go. Everybody's joining in the chat. Awesome. Hi, Andy, Samantha, Diego. Glad you can join us from up in Waukegan.

Egypt, thank you for joining us, Austin. Maddie, glad you can join us. Hi, Logan. Hi, Gabriella. Hi. We need a nice to have you join us this evening. Robert from Charlotte, NC.

My old stomping grounds. I used to live in Greensboro.

Avien, Mia Caitlin Glad you could join us these this evening.

All right, well, I'm super thrilled to have you all join us this this evening again, I'm Lisa Maguire, the director of new student orientation and parent relations. Umm, this is our second in a series of webinars that we're doing for our incoming students. Umm, so glad you've chosen the University of Illinois. Springfield is a special place. I've worked here for 11 years.

And I love this campus and I love the people I work with. This particular webinar is about the housing application process. We'll also talk about the exemption for commuter students and then how to apply for housing in our housing application. I have Hannah Yakino joining us this evening from Residence Life. She's going to be leading us in this webinar.

And Nick Wagner, one of our resident hall directors, will be answering questions in the chat.

Don't hesitate to drop your questions in the chat as we go through Nick will add the you know, answer those as he goes through. Now these will be questions specifically about residents life, about housing, living on campus, questions related to admission or anything else we won't be able to address in this particular webinar. All right, Hannah, if you want to go ahead and click on.

The sharing presentation controlling the slides.

You can go ahead and start the presentation.

OK, can you guys hear me? Can you hear me, Lisa? Good. Alright guys, so my name is Hannah and I'm gonna be talking about, umm, residence life and living on campus and all the fun stuff, so I'm gonna try to.

Get this.

Lisa.

I don't know if I oh, there we go. OK, so on the agenda today, we're going to be talking about the UIS e-mail, residency requirement, how to apply for housing, our housing options, living learning communities, and what to bring to campus.

So first, I'm going to start off by talking about checking and reading your UIS e-mail regularly. So I know most of you are prospective students, so this will pertain to you, you know, after you apply for housing and all that stuff. But it is so crucial to check that UIS e-mail, I would say daily and actually read those emails 'cause that's where we.

Important emails to you guys, important information as well as other departments. So we definitely utilize that.

And then also just staying informed about campus events.

And announcements through umm, the campus announcements and also building the habit of checking your e-mail umm and it'll just benefit you in the future.

OK, so let's go on to housing stuff. So our residency requirement is all single freshman and sophomore students under 21 not residing with parents or legal guardians within a 40 mile radius and have earned fewer than 60 credit. Hours earned after high school graduation are required to live on campus.

Umm, so if you live within that 40 mile radius of campus, you will need to fill out this housing exemption form on your screen. Umm, that is the URL. So you can, you know, type that in and umm, fill that out. So once that's submitted, you will receive an approved e-mail or we might, you know, send you an e-mail requesting more information from you. Umm, if you didn't include enough information.

If you do not fill that exemption form out and you do not live on campus, you will actually still be charged. So make sure that you fill that out. It's very crucial to do so.

All right, so any UIS student can live on campus. And I always like to say your time to live on campus is now, you know, when you are, when you graduate college, you're probably not going to live on campus ever again. So I highly recommend living on campus even if you live close just for that.

Community. So our affordability, everything is pretty much included.

Laundry is free. All you have to do is bring your laundry detergent and most universities don't have free laundry, so that is a big perk for us. You know, your Wi-Fi, all that good stuff is included. The one thing that is not included is a meal plan, so that is a separate cost.

And freshman and sophomores do have to have a meal plan and you will see that information on the housing application.

Safety so we have 24/7 on call staff we have a Police Department on campus we have an emergency number and a non-emergency number so you know if you need anything we are always here the convenience aspect of living on campus is amazing so we.

Yeah, the convenience aspect is great. Just because you know, you're living on campus, you get to walk.

To your classes and it's probably no more than I would say 5 to 10 minute walk. So that is great. And you really don't need to drive anywhere on campus. You're saving some money and then living on campus comes with options. So once you live with us for one year, you can be in what's called broom selection where you will be able to select your room for the next year, which is really awesome.

We have a ton of housing options so I think later in this video I will get to some of our housing options.

Alright, so first up, umm, applying for housing, this is kind of what the page is going to look like that student login. So you're gonna hit select student, you're gonna select the student login and enter your net ID and password. Once you receive that. And then next you will go to this page and you will select Manage my housing.

Umm and then once you get to that page, it will then show you.

The different applications. So right now the application that is open is academic year 20252026 housing application. The next step is to pay the prepayment umm and application fees. So I mistakenly put paid deposit on there. It is actually not a deposit. It is now a prepayment.

Umm so you would select pay now and you will pay the housing payment using.

Either a credit card or a debit card. The payment includes a $200 prepayment and a $50 application fee. And this is you will have to do this every time you apply. So each year that you apply, you'll be paying that 200 prepayment plus the $50 application fee. The Broussard's office has gone paperless, so.

Unfortunately we don't, you know, accept any checks so.

The only form of payment is that credit or debit card.

OK, so Next up is umm Step 4 and that is filling out your profile questions accurately. So this is really big because if you don't, if you kind of fib on these, you are going to be placed with someone who may not have the same similarities. So you definitely want to be accurate when you are.

You know doing your matching questions. So if your bedtime.

Is 9:30 to midnight put 9:30 to midnight and not midnight to 2:00 AM or something like that so you know if you don't have a specific roommate request, you'll be matched with other students based on your responses. And the more accurate your answers are, the better your roommate match will be.

So after you fill out the profile questions, there will be some other.

Pages like living learning, community page, gender inclusive housing pages, umm, that you'll fill out and then after that you will, umm, go to the choose a roommate page. This page is optional. You can fill out the housing application and not even choose a roommate yet. Uh, you know, you can come back in a month or two if you're like, oh, I, you know, know someone now that's going to.

I want a room with them you can type in their UI in as long as they have started their application and.

Request each other as roommates. If you do not know who you want to room with yet, you can always select that. Suggest roommates. Umm, little link right there. And that's gonna show you some students that might match umm with you and profiles, umm. So that's a really cool tool to utilize.

If you don't know who you want to room with, but if you're like, you know what, I don't even want to mess with that.

Our housing program actually does that for us. We try to make sure people are matched 75% or more. So usually it's a really good match and you don't have to worry about that. And then the specific date you want to kind of look out for is if you have a roommate that you want to add in there, make sure it's before June 16th.

Umm, so definitely get those roommates in there before the 16th of June and then last but not least is going to be sign and submit your housing contracts. So you definitely want to read the terms and conditions. You can kind of see it on the.

Screen now, but definitely read through those terms and conditions because once you sign with your UIN you are bound to the terms and conditions.

And we just want to make sure that you realize it is for the academic year. So once you've, you know, read those terms and conditions, you'll enter your UIN and select save and continue to submit your housing application.

All right, so what's next you, so you might be thinking, you know, I don't know if I have if I know of a roommate or not. So you may request a roommate during or after submitting your housing application. I kind of already touched on this. Like I said, it's not required to have a roommate will place you with someone with similar interests if you are in an LLC, which I will get to momentarily.

You will all live together on the same residence hall floor, so keep that in mind.

If you're in CAP honors and your potential roommate is not in CAP honors, you'll have to run that by the person in charge of CAP honors. So we'll definitely you'll have to keep that in mind too.

And then so placements you're wondering like, OK, I assigned my housing contract, when am I going to get my housing notification? So if you apply for the academic year, so the fall slash spring application and if you apply by June 16th, you will be notified beginning to middle of July with your housing assignment and your roommate information. So you guys can message back and forth and kind of talk about.

Who's bringing what and getting excited? Spring only application. You'll be notified at the beginning of January with that information, and summer applicants will be notified at the beginning of May.

Alright let's go on to housing options. So we have a couple residence halls on campus, Lincoln residence hall and founders residence hall. Umm, typically our freshmen are in Lincoln and most of the time our second years are in founders, but it can definitely fluctuate. Umm. So most of our setups are two-bedroom 1 bathroom suite style. So that in that means.

Each room comes with two twin extra long beds, 2 desks, 2 desk chairs and two dressers. We have free laundry services and lounge on each wing. We have a full heating and cooling system. Each wing is served by a residence a sorry by a resident assistant and you and your roommates are responsible for cleaning your bathroom and your bedroom.

So your, any of your shared spaces, you and your roommate, your room, you have to do the cleaning for that and the bathroom. I just want everyone to know that umm, it's nice to, you know, kind of get a schedule going with your roommate and get umm, stuff clean. So that is kind of what a umm, Lincoln and Founders room looks like.

And then the next housing option, umm, this is for upperclassmen.

Students, residents and These are townhouses and apartments, so upperclassmen and graduate students so once you hit those two years living on campus you can choose the upperclassmen apartments. These are four bedroom 2 bathrooms style. Each bedroom includes a twin extra long bed and a desk, a desk chair and a dresser so.

Students living in the apartments and townhouses.

They have a private bedroom and they share 1 bathroom. So two people share 1 bathroom and yeah. And then the living room is a furnished living room with a sofa, lounge chair and side tables. We do have a kitchen in the townhouses and apartments and those are equipped with major appliances and a dining table and four chairs.

That does not include a microwave, but you can definitely bring a microwave. Let's see free laundry services in each housing court. Umm, it's not actually in your like apartment or townhouse, but umm, everybody has to share in that court. Umm, there's usually 4 washers and four dryers and then again, you and your roommates are responsible for cleaning your bathroom and.

Spaces. So a lot of students like to come up with like a cleaning schedule for that.

All right, on to living learning communities. So what is a living learning community you might ask? They are living learning communities offer a unique opportunity for students to live in a supportive and enriching environment tailored to their interests and experiences. So most of the time, all of our living learning communities.

Live on the same floor with each other and we have 6.

Living learning communities. At UIS we have CAP Honors, which does. You do not have to apply to be in CAP Honors.

It's basically you are kind of asked if you want to be in cap honors kind of thing, but for the other ones which is Stars Pre Nursing, Pathways, Leadership for Life, Necessary Steps and our Transfer LLC, those you all have to apply for.

And actually in our housing application slash contract, there is a page on there. So if you are interested in an LLC, definitely read through that page. There will be a link. You can just click that link, it'll take you to the application, you'll fill that application out, then you'll go back to the housing application to finish filling that out. So if you're interested in any of those.

Just, you know, definitely fill out that application in the housing contract.

And then so why choose an LLC? The academic excellence. You have access to specialized academic support and resources, which is amazing.

Personalized attention, so dedicated faculty and staff, peer mentors and advising community engagement. You know, provide social connections and enhance opportunities to connect with your cohort.

And last but not least, just a sense of belonging, you know, finding your people. Forge lifelong friendships and connections with a supportive community.

So we're getting to the end. So what to bring and what what not to bring to campus. So here is just a small list of what to bring and what not to bring down below. You can take that link and search for that in the in Google and that will bring you to our way bigger list of, you know, the recommended stuff to bring and what not to bring. So.

I'll list what I have on here for now. So it's personal clothing, toiletries and hygiene products. Umm, bed linens. Those are gonna be extra long. Twin, uh, compact refrigerators, microwaves, less than 1000 watts, umm, ATV shower curtain. And it should be 78 inches in length, especially if you're in a residence hall, umm, because those are.

Really tall showers, so you want to make sure that it is the right length, otherwise you will have water spilling out everywhere. We don't want that.

General cleaning supplies and laundry supplies and like I said, that's not the entire list but just some important ones I put on there and then what not to bring. So we have flushable wipes, those clog pipes. I don't even know why they're called flushable wipes because.

They should not be flushed umm, space heaters. We you know, cannot have space heaters just because they are a fire hazard. Also with candles. Just no candles. LED strip lights. Those pull off paint. So please do not bring LED strip lights. I know they're cool, but you don't want to be paying UMM for the damage.

Uh, double sided tape, nails, duct tape, any of that stuff we want to use.

Command strips. Those are great to use to hang up anything. Air fryers, grills, toaster ovens, etc.

That we cannot have those pets are a no. The only thing we can have umm are fish in a maximum of a 10 gallon tank and then weapons or drugs of any kind.

Alright, any questions umm for me or for Nick? Who is UMM answering in the chat? I see that there have been some questions, but umm.

Yeah, if there's any questions, feel free to throw them in the chat and I can answer them. Our contact information is right here, so umm, yeah.

Alright, umm, I do want to talk about, while Nick is, umm, uh, addressing any questions you might have. Umm, two things that we don't touch on in this presentation. Umm, students that live in the residence halls are required to have a meal plan, uh, and umm, so I'm going to put a link in here, umm, to our dining halls and then I'm also going to put information about.

Our, umm, meal plans.

So starting next year, umm, our meal plans.

Our meal plans are declining balance. They've they've always been that way, but excuse me.

Click enter There we go. But we have 3 meal plans for students. Signature, which is our largest meal plan depending on how you eat is about 19 to $27.00 a day. So if you're here Monday through Friday, you go home on the weekends, you know it would be like $27.00 a day.

If you hear all seven days a week it's about $19.00 a day. Our gold meal plan is the medium and our silver meal plan. Now here's the thing, we have a Starbucks on campus and if those of you frequent Starbucks you know how expensive those drinks can be. 1 drink is a meal. So if you have a Starbucks habit, start asking family members for Starbucks gift cards because we honor those.

And that way.

You won't run out of your meal plan money by Halloween like some of our students have as they learn to manage their declining balance. Because it's like having cash, but it's on your student ID card and you pay for every item, drinks, entrees, you know, dessert items, all like you would in a restaurant, all separately or what they call a la carte. So just those are two things.

That you can take.

And be aware of.

Umm Samantha, commuter life. Commuter life is what you want to make of it. Umm there's so many opportunities to get involved on campus. Umm Classes go on Monday through Thursday until 8:00 at night. So umm, a lot of the student organizations will start meeting after that point. Umm But during the day there are activities on campus to do our recreation and athletic center, which we call track.

Umm, our student union will have programs, umm and then of course things like, you know, go to going to tutoring or going to the library and working on your homework.

Our student union is kind of like our big hangout on campus, and so you'll see students that will hang out there so that they can meet up with their friends, eat of course, and socialize, do homework, that kind of thing. We talk about this more during orientation in the summertime.

Couple things I also want to address.

Facebook Invitation So when you were admitted, you were sent an invitation. Students.

To join our Facebook and you might be going oh Facebook that's so old that's old people yes, I understand it is but it is the most secure in terms of I have it as a closed group and I put the link in here in case you don't have your e-mail and I look everybody up to see that you actually have an application at UIS and were admitted we have.

You know, not so nice people trying to gain access to people's data and try to get into the group.

And so one of the important thing is to make sure you answer the questions because if your Facebook name isn't the same as your real name on your application, I'll deny you as well. So we're posting lots of content in there, trying to get folks excited about school. And as we get into the summer, a lot of content will be in there about orientation and then as the semester starts.

I start using it as posting information that you should be aware of, like for example right now.

We're reminding everybody that our institutional scholarships, which you all are eligible to apply for, that deadline is this Friday at noon. So you know, these scholarships are for the 20252026 academic year. So we're making sure we remind students not to forget. Takes an hour to fill that out to apply for that.

Four other webinars that I'm doing. As I mentioned, this is our second in a series that we're doing.

And I do repeat these webinars every single month. You will get this recording of this presentation and someone asks for the slide, so I'll send that as well. But my second webinar, or technically third if you're counting this as my second, my third webinar is I've said yes to UIS. What's next? And so in that webinar, which is this Thursday, February 13th from 6:00 to 7:00.

I'll be walking through the confirmed student checklist talking about things like orientation, advising, registration.

And some of the things you need to do while you're still waiting for your school year to end and UIS to begin. You should check your e-mail everybody that was admitted and confirmed their their admission Duis accepted their offer of admission. They've been sent these emails then I have on February 24th from 6:30 to 7:30 PM I'm admitted what's next so if.

My first webinar 2 weeks ago. I go over things like how to view your application status page and make sure you're on track for all the things you need to submit, how to access our portals, how to claim your net ID and password that Hannah mentioned. That e-mail will be going out Monday the 17th so I haven't sent that invitation yet. So you have not missed anything.

I also want to provide you a great resource.

I know some of you are are very excited and are already thinking about, you know what you need to do to be ready to start classes in the fall.

Orientation. All for your students are required to attend orientation and so we've posted the dates on our website. I just dropped the orientation website and the link for you to access. You can check the dates and plan around that.

Registration for orientation will open up on Monday, March 3rd.

And I'll have another webinar that I'll do that'll show you how to do your registration for orientation. Again, thank you all so much for joining us this this evening.

We are so excited that you were able to join us. I'm just going to go through.

Umm, and see that we answered stuff.

Let's see, Nick got that one.

Umm Emerson, is your money refunded if you don't use all your money? I'm guessing your meal plan money by the end of the year? No? So you have an academic year to use your meal plan meal plan money. What's wonderful about UIS is we umm roll over fall to spring semester. You have the 1st 10 days of every semester to go up or down.

On your meal plan. So if you're eating more than you thought you were, umm, you know, or that Starbucks habit, umm, you can increase your meal plan and go up to the next, uh, payment option or like January, you have money leftover, you can drop down to a meal plan. Uh, but if you do not spend it, uh, by the time the spring semester ends, unfortunately you do lose that Umm, so you have to kind of think about what you eat. One of the things we talk to students about.

Is that first 10 days of school?

Kind of eat like normally would and get an idea of how much you're spending a day. What's great is our I card office, you can e-mail them and they will send you what you're spending every day and you can got to get an idea of how much you're spending daily as well as weekly. One of the things we've noticed students do is as my dad would say, your highs are bigger than your stomach and you're taking more than you you need to eat. And so there there's food waste that you're paying for food.

That you don't eat. And so one of the things we tell students, you know, start off small and you can always go back and pay for a second round of helpings if you need it. This way you're not throwing food out. So that's a good, good way to economize and save your money.

So good question, thanks for asking that. The university does have TikTok.

It's just lonely old me that does my social media and so Facebook is pretty much all I can handle for our department.

So, but the university has a great TikTok and you want to follow that for some really cool things that they do.

I will post it in the chat.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, let's see. Oh, thank you so much. Haley or Hannah. I was just reading Haley's name. Umm, I, I want to say also Reslife, you know, Hannah gave a shout out to their Instagram and Tiktok. Umm, Hannah's been their social media content person and she's been doing a really fabulous job. I've been taking some of that content and stealing it and putting it on our Facebook page because it is so well done. Umm, kudos to you, Hannah.

And so you may want to follow residence life as well.

Because they have a really great page for both those those platforms. So again, thank you all so much for joining us this evening. I'm going to stay on just another moment or two in case you guys have questions that I can try and answer. Otherwise, keep checking your personal e-mail. In fact, if you use your UI, your high school e-mail address or the college that you're currently attending for my transfer students.

As part of your application, and that's where you're getting information about our programming, e-mail the admissions office, admissions at uis.edu. I'm going to drop that in the chat because what's happening is sometimes the high schools block outside emails and so you might not be getting information from us, or once you leave school, you'll stop getting information from us.

And I still use your personal e-mail to send things out, for example like Family weekend.

Umm, so you'll want to make sure you send the admissions office, umm, your personal e-mail address, your Gmail, your Y mail, your iCloud, whatever that you use, umm, and they'll update that so you won't miss anything, especially related to orientation and advising and registration and all that fun stuff. Umm, so that's another tip as well.

There is a UMM chat in here from Veneta. I don't know if you can answer this. UMM it's probably not for me. But she says umm do I need to plan orientation after I take my placement test or anything?

Great question, Veneta. Umm, if you're coming in as a first year, umm, you will we, we, we, uh, require three parts of orientation for first years, an online component, an in person piece, which is the June dates that you'll see on our website. And then we have new student welcome, umm, a couple of days before classes start when you move in and start getting settled in. And for any commuters that are joining, you're part of that too.

And so we open up the the online orientation in May. You can start making your appointment with your advisors after you complete your modules. There are 10 modules. It takes about an hour and a half to two hours to complete. And then you can make your academic advising appointment and your advisor will meet with you and tell you if you've taken place in tests. For my transfer students, you're not required to attend orientation, but we're offering you all of these different events.

So you'll get invitations to them as well.

But you'll be able to start registering as of the second Tuesday of April, which is April 14th, and so you can start making appointments for your academic advisor.

Probably, I would say right after our spring break, which is March, let's see, starting March 17th, so starting Saint Patty's Day, you can start reaching out to your academic advisor and again they can tell you if you need to take placement testing, generally transfer students.

May only have to take math depending on their major. Most of you guys tend to take English 101 and English 102 and they tend to be, you know, counted and pulled in. And so you won't have to worry about that. But for my first year students, your academic advisor will let you know if you have to take English, the placement exam for English. And depending on your major, if you have to take math and then we recommend that you get that scheduled. You can do it in person here in Springfield.

Or you can do it virtually remotely and it's that's free and we recommend that you do it before your in person orientation in June because you'll be registering for classes during the in person orientation in June. So that was kind of a very long answer to your question about placement testing because it depends on if you're a first year transfer. So thanks for asking that Veneta.

Let's see, in terms of dorm living, are we assigned a dorm or can we prepare for that after high school?

So Nick, umm, if you're Livi, uh, if you're in Graduate School, umm, you're gonna be, you have the option of living on or off campus students. It depends on your preference. Umm, I know grad school students that prefer to live on campus because you're, you have access to everything. You don't have to worry about things like commuting or parking. Umm, and we do have a pretty tight housing market and, and rental market here in Springfield right now.

And so it can get pretty challenging or expensive trying to find off campus housing, but you do have that option. We have apartments and townhomes available to our upper class students. And as a grad student, Hannah, it's the apartments for them, correct?

So a lot of the time graduate students like to live in the apartments just because more of the graduate students live over there. But you can live in the townhouses if you prefer. So either one. But most of the time graduate students like to live on the east side of campus in the apartments.

Yeah, for my first years, if you're a typical first year, 1817, eighteen years of age coming out of high school, you're gonna be living in the residence hall. Umm, if you live, as Hannah mentioned earlier, within that 40 mile radius, like your permanent home address is within that 40 mile radius, umm, you can apply for an extension and Residence Life will verify that and get back to you about that exemption.

If you are over the under, over the age of 21 and we do have first year students that are starting.

Over the age of 21, especially if they're coming in from the military. Again, you are not required to live on campus, though again, students choose it because it's convenient and you would be at 21, the option of the townhomes or the apartments.

So great question, Nick. Thanks for asking. Let's see.

We haven't got that one about athletes. There we go. Great.

Alright, good questions. Thanks. Thanks so much for asking those.

Alright, I'm gonna hang out one more minute, so if you've got any last minute questions, let us know. Otherwise, thank you so much for joining us. Umm, and definitely by Friday. We're expecting snow tomorrow, so I'm not really sure if I'll make it into the office to download this recording, uh, because it saves to my computer. Umm, but definitely by Friday, uh, we'll have uh, this emailed out to you all.

Umm, so everybody will be able to see the recording again?

And go through it and see the slides as well. So, alright, it's 611. Thank you so much, everybody. Thank you to Hannah. I'm glad you were able to join me this evening. And Nick, glad you were able to answer questions in the chat.

We're like grateful for you all to join us this evening. Hope this made this more helpful and excited for y'all in the next part of your journey. Alright, take care everybody.

Bye.