Housing Accommodations
Whenever possible, Housing & Residential Life works to accommodate residents’ needs in the residence halls and/or campus dining. Accommodations for various disabilities and chronic health conditions take time to arrange. Housing & Residential Life receives many such requests, all of which affect the allocation of limited housing resources. If you have an accommodations request, we highly recommend you apply as soon as possible. Please note, submitting accommodation requests is not a guarantee that you will receive the requested accommodations.
Current residents apply for accommodations through Accessibility Resources.
Incoming residents apply for accommodations within their housing contract.
- Students with disabilities are assigned roommates in the same manner as all other residence hall applicants unless they specifically request an accommodation and/or require a single room and one is available at the time their application is processed. Accommodation requests take precedence over all other requests, including roommates.
- Deaf or Hard of Hearing: a large number of rooms in the residence halls have strobe light fire and smoke detector alarms.
- Mobility Limitations: A number of rooms and bathrooms in the residence halls have been modified to accommodate wheelchairs.
- If you have accommodation needs due to a chronic health condition such as allergic rhinitis, asthma, diabetes, mental health disorder, or a significant temporary health condition, documentation and recommendations from the appropriate health care provider are required.
- If you are required to use hypodermic needles for any health reason, please utilize Sharps Containers.
- We recommend that you tell your roommate about your allergies and any emergency medicines.
- See Meal Plan Accommodations section if you have a dietary need and are requesting a meal plan modification.
- Service Animals on Campus: Service animals are permitted on campus as compliant with State and Federal laws regarding accessibility. You are responsible for your animal’s care, including cleanup.
- Emotional Support Animals in the Residence Halls: Housing & Residential Life will allow an Emotional Support Animal if certain conditions are met.
- The animal must be necessary for the resident with a disability to have equal access to housing and the accommodation must also be reasonable. An accommodation is unreasonable if it presents an undue financial or administrative burden on the University, poses a substantial and direct threat to personal or public safety or constitutes a fundamental alteration of the nature of the service of program.
- There must be a link between the animal and a disability, emotional distress resulting from having to give up an animal because a “no pets” policy does not qualify a person for an accommodation under federal law. Any student approved assistance animal in MSUM facilities must also meet MSUM requirements/policies for animal health and behavior as well as their University Housing & Dining Contract.
- You must complete ALL of the steps required for an Emotional Support Animal in order to be considered for this accommodation.
- If you have a food allergy or require a special diet, please email our Operations Manager so that they can provide you with the resources and information needed to make healthy food choices. Foods served in the residential dining halls that contain potential allergens are labeled accordingly and ingredient information is available upon request.
- Visit https://mnstate.sodexomyway.com/health/allergy.html for more information.
- If you have a severe food allergy, we recommend that you tell your roommate about your allergies and any emergency medicines.
- Dietary Accommodations Requests: please fill out the Student Information Questionnaire to Accessibility Resources; you will have an opportunity to send documentation as part of this process.
- The Rainbow Dragons Learning Community is available to new and returning residents. Visit the Learning Communities website to learn more and to apply.
- Gender Inclusive Housing and bathrooms are available in West and South Snarr. These facilities allow for continuing residents, women, men, and people of all gender identities and expressions to live in the same community together.
- In meeting the needs of the incoming student, Housing & Residential Life will recognize and respect the gender identity the student has established with our department. Staff will not ask for any more information than is required to meet the student’s housing needs, and all disclosed information will be kept strictly confidential. In order to provide support for the needs of current and incoming transgender students, we strongly encourage potential and current residents to contact us early in the housing request process so that we may offer the widest range of possible housing options. Students can do this by contacting Housing & Residential Life.
- Curious about the Preferred Naming process? Find out about Preferred Name.
- Research shows that students who live on campus achieve higher GPAs, are more likely to graduate and report higher overall satisfaction with their university experience. For these reasons, first year students are required to live on campus.
- Students may qualify for an exemption to the policy for a variety of conditions. Decisions will be made by Director of Housing and Residential Life, or designee, or referred to the Housing Exemption Review Board. See the link below to see if you qualify for exemption.
- For more information, the complete First Year Live-On Policy can be found online.
- To apply for exemption you must submit the Housing First Year Live-On Campus Exemption Form. Note: exemption requests may require documentation.