Viviana Gomez, Clara Frizzi, Cameron Cherry, Olivia Wilbur sit behind Emily Reckerr in their suite. Credit: Courtesy of Cameron Cherry
With 200-square-foot rooms, white cinder block walls and no visitors or parties, Ohio State students may confuse their residence halls with Shawshank — but if their cellmates are all right, they might make it out alive.
Students following COVID-19 guidelines and staying in the confines of their dorm rooms as much as possible this year may find themselves building both friendships and tension due to constant interaction with roommates.
Common areas of residence halls require mask wearing and social distancing. But within their rooms, residents can agree upon their own set of requirements for hygiene and social distancing, Josh Harder, a Morrill Tower resident adviser and third-year in political science, said.
However, if expectations differ among roommates, conflict can ensue.
Cameron Cherry, a first-year in university exploration and resident in Morrill Tower, said a conflict arose between her and her roommates after someone violated their rules for guests, causing COVID-19 to spread in their suite.
A roommate invited someone else in without the knowledge of the other roommates, Cherry said. She said open communication was key to resolving the issue.
“We have come together as suitemates and talked about our issues,” Cherry said. “We’ve been like, ‘Hey there’s some tension here, let’s work it out.’”
Cherry said she believes this direct communication helps solve roommate conflicts and avoid suitemates turning to gossip or ignoring the problems within their dorm, escalating tension to a breaking point.
Emily Johnson, a first-year in sociology and resident in Canfield Hall, said she spends most of her time in her dorm room with her roommate.
“I love my roommate, but obviously being around someone all the time is a lot,” Johnson said. “We are always on top of each other, which does get to be a lot sometimes.”
Johnson said she and her roommate avoid conflict by communicating frequently and scheduling their days so that they are not in each other’s way.
“If one of us does something that annoys the other, we’ll just tell each other, ‘That was annoying,’ and then we won’t do it again,” Johnson said. “We try not to step on each other’s toes.”
Outside visitors are not allowed to enter residence halls, Harder said, so much of the socialization among on-campus students happens between residents who live in the same building. Although expectations of physical distancing means it’s less likely those connections stretch more than a few yards past the dorm room, Harder said the relationships inside the rooms may create stronger bonds.
“Roommates maybe have become closer due to COVID. They’ve gotten to know each other more and spend more time together,” Harder said. “There’s less genuine connection between rooms, but maybe a more intimate connection in a single room.”
Cherry said simple times with her suitemates such as watching “The Bachelorette” in their common room and going out for dinner at Cazuela’s Grill near campus helped them grow closer.
Johnson said she feels she has a close relationship with her roommate and the other girls who live on her floor. She said finding things to do with her roommates and neighbors — such as taking trips to the North Market or simply checking out a card game from the residence hall front desk — has helped.
Johnson and one of her building’s residence advisers, Emma Zanlungo, a third-year in psychology, recommended the card game “We’re Not Really Strangers” and other simple gestures, such as keeping the door to the hallway open, as a way to strengthen relationships between roommates and create relationships with others beyond their own dorm room.
Zanlungo said facilitating socialization on her floor has been challenging this year, but some of her first-year residents managed to push past barriers created by COVID-19 and make friends with others in their hall.
“At the end of the day, these are freshmen, and they’re here to make friends,” Zanlungo said. “Everybody is open to getting to know other people and being friendly, it’s just a matter of making those moments happen.”
