Contract Renewal Guide

• Contract Renewal Schedule
• Important Changes for 2025-2026
• How Contract Renewal Works
• Roommates and Suitemates
• Making Payment and if you miss Contract Renewal
• Halls Available for Contract Renewal
• Halls Not Available for Contract Renewal
• Residence Halls
• Virtual 3D Tour
• 3D Room Diagrams
• Residence Hall Location Map 

Apply for CONTRACT RENEWAL

From the director's desk

Dear Residence Hall Student,

It is time to submit your residence hall contract renewal request for the 2025-2026 academic year! Please take a moment to read this information carefully and review the Contract Renewal Schedule to find your designated renewal date and time.

What’s New?

There are some changes for the upcoming academic year that could affect your housing options. Be sure to review these updates to make informed decisions about your living arrangements.

Contract Renewal Process

The renewal process involves two key steps:

Step 1: Complete Your Contract Renewal Re-Application

Starting Monday, Jan. 13 at 10:00 a.m., you’ll need to:

• Submit your Contract Renewal Re-Application.
• Pay a $200 housing prepayment.
• Request a roommate/suitemate and complete your roommate matching profile.
• Select a meal plan.
• Indicate if you’d like to stay in your current room (if eligible).

Important: You must complete this step and pay the $200 prepayment to move forward with room selection. If you have questions or concerns about the payment, contact Housing Assignments at 330-672-7021.

Step 2: Select Your Room Online

Room selection will take place in March and will be based on your projected class standing at the end of the spring 2025 semester. Students who have completed Step 1 will receive an email in mid-February with instructions and their specific room selection start date.

Plan Ahead

Start considering where and with whom you’d like to live next year. The Online Contract Renewal Re-Application helps you arrange roommate requests and handle payments well in advance of room selection.

Additional Information

Please review the Residence Hall Contract for Room and Meal Plan and the information on this page carefully. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at housing@kent.edu.

We are here to help make your housing experience as smooth as possible! 

Daniel Shonk

Director, Assignments and Occupancy Management

Contract renewal schedule

Step 1

The Contract Renewal Re-Application is available beginning Jan. 13 at 10:00 a.m. for students to make the $200 prepayment, request roommates, complete a profile, and select the “Same Hall/Same Room” option for next year. The class standings below (based on credit hour) are referencing what a student’s class standing will be at the conclusion of spring 2025 semester.

Step 2

Mid-February, you will also receive an email with additional details on the contract renewal process. This email will inform you which Contract Renewal "Group" you are in – this determines when you are first able to go online in March and select a room (if you do not wish to return to your current assignment). We determine your contract renewal group based on a number of factors, including what your class standing will be at the end of the current academic year.

Students will be placed in a contract renewal group based on their class standing as of the end of the academic year. The contract renewal groups will select rooms with those students who will have 30-59 credit hours at the end of the academic year selecting first. The next group of students will be those that will have 1-29 credit hours at the end of the academic year. The third group of students will include those that will have 60 plus credit hours and graduate students.

A random lottery system will be used to assign a time where each student within each of the contract renewal groups will be able to log into the contract renewal system in March to self-select a room for next year. Once your start time has begun, you will be able to log in and look for open rooms until April 4th.

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Important changes for 2025-2026

For the 2025-2026 academic year there are changes in some residence halls with respect to student eligibility and process. Please read carefully, as some of these changes could affect you. We hope that the new building configurations will provide housing accommodations that best meet your needs.

Centennial Court B Reminder:

Students currently living in Centennial Court B will be able to select the Same Hall/Same Room option; however, only those students who are honors students will be able to select a different/new room in Centennial Court B. A non-honors roommate request to live with an honors student in CCB needs to be made through the Honors College office or via email to housing@kent.edu.

Triple Rooms:

A limited number of rooms in Centennial Courts, B, D, E and F and Johnson and Stopher Halls will continue as triple rooms. Three students will be assigned to these rooms with three sets of furniture in each room.

Verder Hall:

Verder Hall will reopen for 2025-2026. Rooms will include double rooms, single rooms, and deluxe single rooms (a double room without a roommate). Each student room will have an individual portable AC unit per room. The AC unit sits on the floor and vents out the window. Students who are not familiar with the noise portable AC units can make should watch the video on our Verder Hall webpage.

Displaced Student Definition:

It is sometimes necessary to change the eligibility requirements of our residence halls to accommodate new programs or changing the demographics of our student body. When the eligibility requirements of a building or floor are altered and this action prevents a current resident of a location to be eligible for Same Hall/Same Room, the affected resident is considered “Displaced”. A displaced student is prioritized in Step 2 of the Online Contract Renewal Process, with room selection occurring following all other Same Hall/Same Room Requests. Students will be notified via email if they fall within the displaced student group.

Room Consolidation:

For many years, the residence halls have been near or beyond 100% capacity at the beginning of the fall semester. University Housing is not always able to honor all requested roommate pairings for new applicants due to rooms that are partially filled with returning students. This also creates room pairing challenges, with many returning students who did not have a roommate at the end of the contract renewal process being assigned with an incoming freshman once incoming students are assigned.

At the conclusion of contract renewal, any student in a multiple occupancy room with a vacancy may be relocated to another room in the same building to be paired with another student who signed up for contract renewal and does not currently have a roommate in their room.

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How Contract Renewal Works

The Application Process

In order to be eligible to select a room, you first must submit a Contract Renewal Re-Application. This application will enable you to request a roommate or roommates and complete a roommate profile. Meal plan selections will take place within the housing application. The $200 housing prepayment will be due at the time of application and is required in order to select a room at your specified priority date. Keep in mind that no rooms are actually chosen during the re-application period, with the exception of same hall/same room requests (described below).

What should I know if I want to stay in the same room for next year?

Students interested in staying in the same room for the upcoming academic year will have first preference to secure that room. Same Hall/Same Room is NOT an option for students living in the Eastway area, students living in Stopher and Johnson Halls who are not admitted to the Honors College, and students living in Lake Hall. The above areas are for new incoming students or for living-learning communities only. Otherwise, students interested in securing their current room for the upcoming academic year will be able to indicate this preference on their application until January 31 at 5:00 p.m. at which point the option for same hall/same room ends. Your application must be submitted by 5:00pm on January 31 to ensure your same hall/same room preference can be honored. When selecting same hall/same room, students will have the option to select a new roommate; this person will only become your roommate if your current spring 2025 roommate does not also select Same Hall/Same Room, your future roommate request is mutual, your requested roommate has paid their $200 housing prepayment and the mutual request is completed by January 31 at 5:00 p.m.

What should I know if I want to move to a different room?

Students wishing to move to a different room on campus should refer to the Contract Renewal Schedule located above. Your Contract Renewal time is based on your projected earned credit hours at the conclusion of the spring 2025 semester. Your date and time for Contract Renewal will be referenced in a Contract Renewal email that will be sent to you mid-February. Beginning in March on your scheduled room self-selection date, once you are able to log into Contract Renewal using your FlashLine credentials, you have the ability to select available spaces. Through the online site, you can search for a room and/or make changes to your future assignment until the end of Contract Renewal on April 4. It is better to secure a room early and continue to look for another room if you would like to make a change. There are no waiting lists as the Contract Renewal site is live 24x7 for students to view available space instantly. Contract Renewal will end on April 4th at 5:00 p.m. and at that time all assignments for the fall semester will be finalized, pending the room consolidation process..

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Roommates and Suitemates

Choosing a Roommate

When a student requests a roommate during the Online Contract Renewal Re-Application process, the roommate request isn’t confirmed until the other student has mutually requested the first student. To make a roommate request, you will need to provide the student’s last name and Kent State University email address. Once a request is confirmed, the first roommate to select a room in March is given the option to assign the requested roommate in the new fall room with them (see Example below). After the initial assignment has been made, if either roommate then changes rooms during the contract renewal process, the original requested roommate request is in essence broken, and each student is individually responsible to independently move to the new space in order to be roommates in the new room. You are unable to request a new incoming student to be your roommate.

Choosing a Suitemate

For residence hall rooms/suites/apartments with more than two people (Centennial Court A,  Engleman, Johnson, and Stopher Halls), as long as each student in the group mutually requests each other, the first student in the group to select a room is given the option of bringing along with other students. At this time Twin Towers (Beall and McDowell Halls) is not able to request suitemates for the other half of the suite-style setup. Residents in Twin Towers will only be able to request a roommate and have that roommate automatically move with them. In order to secure an entire four-person Twin Towers suite, please discuss with your group which room the initial party is attempting to secure and then reference the online floor plans to verify which suites are connected. You are unable to request a new incoming student to be your roommate or suitemate.

Example

In the example below, you see that a requested roommate appears. If you have requested a roommate and they do not appear for you as in the example, your friend has not yet mutually requested you. When selecting a room, if you check the box that reads “Include Friend’s Name”, you will be able to bring that student into the room with you when you choose your room. Keep in mind that by selecting the roommate box, only rooms and halls for which you are both eligible will appear as an option. As an example, if you are admitted to the Honors College but your requested roommate is not, no rooms in Johnson or Stopher Hall will appear for you while you have your roommate selected. Additionally, you may find that when selecting your roommate, a room that previously showed as available for you may disappear. This may be caused by the fact that there is only one vacant bed and not the necessary two in the room that is required to pair you together.

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Making Payment and if you miss Contract Renewal

The $200 Housing Prepayment

The $200 Housing Prepayment will secure a room for the 2025-2026 academic year. This payment is NOT a fee, nor is it a refundable security deposit. The $200 Housing Prepayment will be credited towards your fall housing charges and will be reflected on your student account as a credit. The $200 Housing Prepayment is due at the time of re-application. You will not be able to secure a specific housing assignment without first making payment, including a request of Same Hall/Same Room. If you decide to cancel your housing after May 1, 2025  the $200 Housing Prepayment will be forfeited. Students eligible to reside off-campus who re-contract through Contract Renewal may cancel the re-application via email to University Housing on or before 5:00 p.m. May 1, 2025 for a refund of the $200 Housing Prepayment.

What happens if I miss the Contract Renewal Re-Application process?

Students required to live on campus who do not go through the online Contract Renewal Re-Application process and secure a room for 2025-2026, (by April 4 at 5:00 p.m.), are able to submit an incoming housing application for Fall 2025. 

Any student who goes through the Contract Renewal Re-Application process and successfully submits the application and makes the $200 Housing Prepayment but does not self-select a room by April 4th, 2025 will be assigned a room by University Housing.

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Available for renewal

Halls Available for Contract Renewal:

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Halls not available for renewal

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Residence Halls

For more information on residence halls click here.

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Virtual 3D Tour

To view 3D room diagrams click here. 

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Room Diagrams

To view room diagrams click here. 

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Residence Hall Location Map

To view a map of residence hall locations click here. 

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