Housing Selection Process Moves Online
Assistant Director of Housing & Residential Life Alex Devers explains how to select housing at an information session on Feb 21. Devers demonstrated using the new platform, StarRez, for the students who attended the session. Credit: Cora Flynn ‘26
The transition to an online housing selection process at Marist College is underway for the 2024-25 school year.
Housing selection for rising sophomores and upperclassmen will occur over six days in April through the new platform, StarRez. The change is intended to streamline the process for students and the housing office.
“What it came down to for us is efficiency for our office, but also for the student experience,” said Assistant Director of Housing and Residential Life Alex Devers. “Our housing process had been very fragmented and had lots of different forms that were in lots of different locations. And so it really came down to, is there a way that we can make this process better for students?”
Under the previous system, students stood in lines in the Murray Student Center at their allotted time; StarRez aims to simplify the process. The various steps of the process – the housing deposit, priority point amendment, group formation and selection – will all take place through the online platform.
“I think having it online will make it a lot easier because you can have everyone around you and do it together if you choose to. I think that's really important to the fact that you can communicate a lot easier with other people who are also going to be living with you,” said Amanda Williamson ‘26.
The process will now be stretched over several days instead of just one. Rising sophomores will register between April 9 and 11, and upperclassmen will register between April 23 and 25. All students participating will receive an email with their group’s time slot based on their average priority points. Students can access StarRez through the Housing and Residential Life tab under “Student” in MyMarist.
“I think it makes things more efficient. But, like how they changed the Student Programing Council’s sales to online, it takes away a little bit of the culture,” said Veronica Vogelman ‘26. “Even though everybody was super annoyed by the long lines with the housing process, I feel like it's part of the college experience. So I'm a little bit sad, but at the same time, it saves everybody a lot of time and energy.”
The Office of Housing and Residential Life held information sessions throughout the weeks of Feb. 19 and 26, explaining the process and new platform. Devers assured students that the overall process of selecting housing is fundamentally the same.
“We aren't changing drastically any of the processes and how they're set up. It's just the platform that they're being done on is different, and efficiency is going to improve overall,” said Devers.
The priority point amendment window ends on March 7. From March 20 to 27, students will be able to go into StarRez and form their housing groups by entering CWIDs.
If students have any questions or concerns about the process, Director of Housing & Residential Life Joseph Guardino implores them to check the website or talk to a staff member.
“Ask questions! Our staff is here. Our staff is knowledgeable,” said Guardino. “We aren't in the business of trying to put barriers between people and what we're doing. So if there's any question, whether a small one or a large one, we want to answer that for them.”