journal_vol49no2 - 55

The Anatomy of Room Change
THE IMPORTANCE OF ROOMMATES FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS
For first-year students, the initial weeks on campus are spent attempting to find a place
to belong, striving to fulfill a basic human need missing in their new surroundings.
Their success or failure plays a key role in subsequent decisions about whether or not
to drop out (Bowman et al., 2019), in their academic achievement (Davis et al., 2019;
Layous et al., 2017), and in their mental and emotional health (Gopalan & Brady, 2019).
Nevertheless, in one study 54% of students reported feeling lonely in the previous year,
which was the most common issue for which students sought counseling (American
College Health Association, 2021), and of course loneliness is even greater for students
without a roommate (Henninger et al., 2016).
Creating close friendships is particularly important for minoritized students, who
often experience greater difficulties in transitioning to college than do White students
(Bentley-Edwards & Chapman-Hilliard, 2015). Comparative studies between predominantly
White institutions (PWIs) and minority-serving institutions found that the
isolation and pressure some students feel due to their minoritized status were greatest
at PWIs, an experience that hinders a student's adjustment to college and increases
the risk of their dropping out (Campbell-Whatley et al., 2021; Winkle-Wagner &
McCoy, 2016). Minoritized students report lower levels of belonging (Stevens et
al., 2018) and greater feelings of isolation or social difficulty caused by their status
(Walton & Cohen, 2011) or cultural differences (Chavous et al., 2002). Roommates
can bridge this gap, providing an opportunity for developing close friends who can
springboard minoritized students into finding and engaging in further connections
(Schofield et al., 2010).
ROOMMATE DIVERSITY
Recognizing the role that roommates play in creating a sense of belonging has led
higher education institutions like New York University, Colgate, Tufts, Duke, and
Harvard to create housing policies for assigning roommates in a way that improves
college adjustment and social connection for minoritized students (Wong, 2019).
Such policy decisions are based on Allport's (1954) contact hypothesis, which argues
that interactions under the proper conditions reduce prejudice and facilitate connection.
These policies have yielded benefits that include increasing the number of nonWhite
friends that White students have (Gaither & Sommers, 2013; Mark & Harris,
2012) and strengthening social belonging, college adjustment, and GPA for minoritized
students (Schofield et al., 2010; Shook & Clay, 2012).
Despite empirical support for the fact that there are many benefits of different-race
roommate pairings, these relationships dissolve at higher rates than they do for peers
in same-race pairings (Shook & Fazio, 2008b; Towles-Schwen & Fazio, 2006), and
those in different-race pairings report lower satisfaction and involvement than do those
in same-race pairings (Shook & Fazio, 2008a). In addition, Black students are typically
much less integrated into their White roommate's social network, especially when
52 The Journal of College and University Student Housing
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