USD Magazine, Fall 2000

interests and tastes in music. Never put two people with the same first name together. Yet every so often, even the matchmakers get snookered . "Occasionally we'll gee two roommates who get together and find their housekeeping habits are way off," Sandman says. "And then we find out one of their mothers filled out the form and listed them as neat and tidy. " The rest of the matching process is much less a science and much more intuition. Lisa Moses is in her second year of helping match the incoming freshmen class, which numbered 942 this year. In charge of the female freshmen, Moses divides the requests into stacks of six and then employs a mixed theory of common interests (similar majors go together) and opposites attract (a shy personality with an outgoing one) . "I'd like them to meet people with similar interests but also give them variety, so I prefer not to put people from the same state or city together," Moses says. She usually feels good about her choices, but admits that every so often she's left with a card that just doesn't seem to fit with another. "I try to do it without any regrets," she says, "but sometimes I can't match them up perfectly."

who even forgave Wise for being (aargh) a high school cheerleader. "We still laugh all the time and chink, 'How on earth did we get hooked up? How did they know we'd be such good friends?' " Not all freshman roomies are pals for life. But more often than not, roommate assignments made by USD housing personnel turn out to be a kind of friendship kismet, where personalities, interests, passions and pet peeves become the ingredients for a successful matchmaking brew. Neat + Messy = Trouble It helps, of course, to have some experienced matchmakers involved. Judy Sandman has spent the past 19 years making sure that roomies are as compatible as possible given the tools she has to work with– a brief questionnaire and a system which gives students housing preferences based on when their deposit is received. "We look at their housing choice, their common interests, the music they like and their spare time activities," explains Sandman, assistant director of residence life. "But the reality is, how do you know from a little piece of paper who these people are?" T here are a few hard and fast rules, however, when it comes to room assignments. Don't put a slob with a neat freak. Try to match

' ' 'We get along great

l can't imagine not having a roommate.' ' -Karen Kreuzer. USO freshman

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FALL 2000