Students move in Aug. 29-30

About 7,000 students will move into university residence halls Aug. 29-30.

Teams of faculty, staff and “Badger Buddies” — returning student residents who can answer questions — will greet new students during move-in day. Residence halls open at 8 a.m.

The Division of University Housing takes great care to spread out the moving process to avoid logjams, but Madison commuters traveling on or near campus Aug. 29-30 may want to rearrange their routes to avoid West Johnson Street and streets near the lakeshore residence halls on the west campus.

Residence halls opening dates were moved up this year to avoid conflict with the Badger football game Thursday, Aug. 31.

Arriving students will find some renovations and improvements, including laundry machines that accept the WisCard debit card, saving students the hassle of coming up with change for washing.

WisCard, the UW–Madison campus debit card, also can be used to buy food at residence hall cafeterias, dining rooms and coffee houses, and for services at other campus locations.

More than ever before, students have been in contact with their new roommates long before move-in day. In June, incoming students received the name and phone number of their roommate. During summer orientation, students were encouraged to plan what each would bring, in order to avoid sending their moving vehicles back home half-full.

In focus groups with incoming students during July, housing staff discovered that among incoming students, women were more likely to spend long hours on the phone with their new roommate, while men corresponded by e-mail.

Yet no matter how much pre-planning has been done, students must still work together with a new roommate to fit all of their belongings into one small residence hall room, housing officials note.