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First-Year Mini Series – Housing & Key Terms

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By Cece Burkett & Lee Roy Johnson

Congrats on becoming a UMW Eagle parent! Today’s post will discuss first-year housing as well as key terms you will hear during your student’s time at UMW.

Housing

First-year students will live in designated first-year residence halls determined by their First Year Seminar Course (FSEM). We call these Living Learning Communities. These first-year residence halls are: Marshall Hall, Mason Hall, Randolph Hall, Russell Hall, and Willard Hall. First-year students will typically live in double rooms with one roommate.

*UMW is currently working on COVID-19 planning for Fall 2020. Depending on recommendations/requirements from the Governor’s office, housing at UMW may have to change. We will keep you posted on any developments.

Housing Assignment

The housing assignment will tell you exactly where your student will be living in the fall. Housing assignments will be sent to students via their UMW email address. When they receive their housing assignment, it will be formatted like this: Willard Hall, WIL-100A-1. See below for what each part of the housing assignment means.

Residence Hall, Residence Hall Abbreviation-Residence Hall Room-Individual Room Space

WIL: Residence hall abbreviation. The residence hall is Willard Hall.

100A: Residence hall room number. The room number is 100. (When your student becomes an upperclass student (after their first year) and they choose to live in the UMW Apartments or Eagle Landing, you will see A, B, and C used to further designate their room within the apartment. So, 100A is apartment 100, room A.)

1: Individual room space. They are in the first individual space within the room. (In the context of this example, the roommate would have the housing assignment “WIL-100A-2” which indicates they are assigned to the second individual bed space within the room. The room spaces are not indicated within the physical room.)

Roommates

Students who indicated a preferred roommate within their housing application by May 15th will receive housing assignments in a residence hall room together. If your student indicate(d) a preferred roommate after this date, we will still make every effort to place the two of them in a room together.

 

Key College Terms

You may hear your student say “Can you put some money on my EagleOne?” or “I’ll check with my RA.” Unless you know what an EagleOne is or what RA means, it could be a confusing conversation. Today we are here to give you a few simple terms to beat that confusion and empower you and your student.

Need to know college terms

  • FAFSA– The Free Application for Federal Student Aid is a form completed by current and prospective college students (undergraduate and graduate) in the United States to determine their eligibility for student financial aid.
  • FERPA– The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools which receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education. Your student will be able to decide what we can share with you or anyone else about their educational records.
  • Finals– Exams at the end of a semester that test a student’s knowledge on everything covered in a course. Finals are usually weighted more heavily than other exams and coursework.
  • Financial Aid– Refers to any type of student loan, scholarship, or grant your student receives to help pay for college.
  • HIPAA– Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a US law designed to provide privacy standards to protect patients’ medical records and other health information provided to health plans, doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers.
  • Liberal Arts– Refers to non-technical, vocational fields of study, including literature, art, mathematics, philosophy, and social and natural sciences.
  • Meal Plan– The plan that dictates how many meals a student can eat at the on-campus dining facilities. Some meal plans also include a discretionary spending fund that can be used like cash at campus restaurants or snack shops, called Flex (see below).
  • Off-Campus Living– Refers to any living arrangement not facilitated by the college. It could be in a rented house, apartment, or at home with you. Eagle Landing and the UMW Apartments are both residence halls at UMW.
  • Room & Board- The price paid to cover on-campus living and meal plan expenses; usually paid for a semester or year at a time.

Unique terms for UMW

  • AC-The Area Coordinator is a live-in Master’s degree-level professional who is responsible for promoting student learning and success for the operation of residence halls, and supervises the RAs. One of these staff members is available to respond to emergencies within the residence halls 24/7/365, even during breaks.
  • ARH– Means the “Association of Residence Halls” which is an organization that promotes social, educational, and cultural programming for and by residents. This organization is open to all residential students and is fun to join!
  • ASPIRE– Are the community values that shape how we interact with each other, how we approach work and learning, and what we strive to be, all across campus.

Accountability – we promote practices, behaviors, and attitudes where individuals take responsibility for their actions and decisions.

Scholarship – we promote intellectual inquiry by engaging ideas and one another in order to gain better understanding and contribute to knowledge

Personal and Institutional Integrity – we are honorable in our academic and work endeavors as well as our interactions with others.

Inclusive Excellence – we strive for all members of the community to have equitable access to opportunities for participation and the resources necessary for success. 

Respect and Civility – we foster an environment in which every individual is treated with dignity at all times by valuing the inherent worth of all identities, abilities, and differences.

Engagement – we develop engaged members of our community who actively participate in the community through responsible leadership and service

  • Banner- UMW’s Official System of Record. Information pertinent to student records, class rosters, registration, grades, accounts, employment, housing, personal information, etc. can be accessed here.
  • Canvas– UMW’s online course management system.
  • Code of conduct– Is a collection of rules and regulations that include what is and is not acceptable or expected behavior at UMW. All regulations and policies are outlined in the Student Handbook.
  • EagleOne Card– Students and employees should have this on them at all times. It grants access to your student’s residence hall, gives access to the dining hall with a meal plan, library card, on campus ID card used for package pick up, allows students or family to deposit money to the card to purchase items on campus and at participating vendors, and more.
  • Eagles in Recovery– Is UMW’s Collegiate Recovery Program which works to ensure that students do not have to choose between their recovery and their education. We support students through their journey here at UMW with meetings, organized events, and trips, and provide a safe space for recovery meetings and peer support.
  • Flex– Flex is a cash equivalent debit account that comes with your meal plan. You can use Flex Dollars to make food purchases at all campus dining locations.
  • Lockout– Is when a resident has locked themselves out of their assigned residence hall room and needs re-entry. During normal business hours (Monday through Friday 8am to 5pm), students should attempt to locate an RA in their building or the AC, and if no one is to be found, they can call the ResLife office for assistance. After 5pm and before 8am, students should attempt to locate an RA or the AC, and after 7pm can call the RA on Duty phone number for assistance.
  • Marye House– Is the main location for the department of Residence Life and Housing.
  • Mediation– A process that is used to help roommates work through differences that may occur. This process is facilitated by RAs, and sometimes ACs.
  • MyUMW- The online portal for clubs and organizations; if a student is asked to swipe into an event, that data is used by the club or organization in myUMW for attendance tracking purposes.
  • NetID– The NetID and Password will be how your student will have access to network resources. Each person at UMW is assigned a username known as a “NetID.” Your NetID is up to 8 characters long and will be used to login to our systems at the University (example UMW Email). Each person must reset their password every 90 days or be locked out of their account.
  • RA– Resident Assistants are the foundation of the Housing staff and have the responsibility to serve as an administrator, organizer, programmer, and role model for the residents of their hall or apartment areas.
  • Residence Hall– This is a college or university building containing living quarters for students to continue their education within a peer community through programs, the residential curriculum, and new experiences. (example: Eagle Landing, Willard Hall, South Hall, etc)
  • ResLife, Residence Life, Residence Life & Housing– The office which employs the RAs (see above) and ACs (see above) among others who oversee the residential students and residence halls.
  • Sanction– This is a penalty for students who have been found in violation of university policies and regulations. Depending on the severity of the violation which will determine the sanction.
  • Student conduct system– The University’s student conduct system seeks to balance the needs of individual students and the needs of the surrounding community. Education is the system’s primary goal — specifically, assisting students to develop a sense of ethics and responsibility to themselves, to each other, and to the communities in which they study, work, and live.
  • Talley Center– Is an on-campus counseling service where they provide triage, individual therapy, group therapy, consultations, outreach educations, crisis intervention, and community referral for all students.
  • UMW, Mary Wash– Nicknames used to refer to University of Mary Washington
  • UMW PD– UMW Department of Police and Public Safety provides a safe and secure environment for the University of Mary Washington community.

This is a lot to take in, but these are just a few terms that your students will be talking to you about. It will be ok because you will have 4 years to learn. As your student becomes part of the Eagle community so will you, and we will be here to help!