Jessica Sullivan says she had a less-than-ideal roommate her first semester at Kansas University.

“I’ve always shared a room my whole life, but my roommate was an only child,” said Sullivan, a Westwood, Mo., native who just finished her junior year at KU. “She didn’t know what would be considered rude.”

The two, who never met until they shared a room, had signed a “roommate contract” governing their behavior. Sullivan said she signed the contract thinking she could tolerate more than she could.

“I wasn’t as honest as I should’ve been when I filled it out,” she said.

The roommate, Sullivan said, would be loud late at night but wanted to sit in the dark all day.

“Her friends were always in there being loud. It wasn’t good,” Sullivan said. “I’m a little bit of a pushover sometimes. I didn’t mind that she was using my computer, but she’d be on it when I wanted to my homework, and she wasn’t doing homework.”

It’s not easy, it turns out, to live with another person.

“Especially in such a small place,” Sullivan said.

Getting strangers to live together is just one of many challenges KU faces with new students, officials said.

“More and more students have never shared a room with anyone – some of them have never shared a bathroom with anyone,” said Diana Robertson, KU’s associate director of student housing. “It’s certainly a new experience.”

Kansas University juniors Allison Cavanaugh, left, Prairie Village, and Jessica Sullivan, Westwood, Mo., have had success remaining good friends while living in close quarters in their room at GSP Residence Hall.

Robertson added: “They have to learn to share, share space, and even talk about what belongings they’re willing to share.”

For new students living in the residence halls, the university uses a computer to randomly assign roommates.

“Some schools ask questions about what kind of music you listen to, what time you go to bed,” Robertson said. “We don’t, because we don’t think that’s a good predictor of who will get along.”

At the beginning of the year, the two roommates are expected to fill out the agreement to govern everything from study times to sleep hours to when opposite-sex guests are allowed.

“It works really well, if it’s utilized,” Robertson said. “It helps make it a little more objective. You don’t have to make it a personal issue between people.”

If trouble arises between roommates, Robertson said residence hall officials try to negotiate a solution using the agreement. After that, room changes are available.

“They’re are some people who are not meant to live together, we understand that,” Robertson said.

This last year, Sullivan was roommates with a high school friend, Allison Cavanaugh. Sullivan said it was a mixture of a longstanding relationship and adherence to the roommate agreement that allowed the partnership to flourish.

Not every old friendship can survive living together, she said.

“I’ve seen a lot of people who knew each other, and they ended up hating each other by the end of the year,” Sullivan said. “Either they don’t work together well … or people get here and they change, they weren’t the person they were in high school.”

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