Smith East and Smith West are equipped with air conditioning for first-year students. Living options for upperclassmen with air conditioning include Stuyvesant Hall, most houses and all the SLUs, as well as Bradford Milligan Hall. Welch and Hayes Halls are not air-conditioned.
Yes. The entire campus is wireless, including the residential side. You can log onto the wireless network BISHOPNET using your OWU email username and password. Most residence hall rooms are still equipped with network access if you wish to use a landline.
No. Students need to supply their own landline phone if they wish to have one to make local calls. Students may make long-distance calls from a landline if they have a long-distance calling card.
Each residence hall has a laundry room, usually located on the ground floor of the building. There is no extra charge to use the laundry facilities! The University assumes no responsibility for any damage which might occur to students’ belongings as a result of use of laundry machines. Ironing boards are located in each residence hall. Irons are not provided.
Students may not build their own loft, but they may request one from their RA/RLC upon their arrival. Loft kits will be available on a first come, first served basis.
Please refer to our Packing Guide for a comprehensive list of items that we recommend you consider bringing with you (and NOT bringing with you).
Because of health and sanitation issues and the possibility of other residents’ allergic reactions, pets are not permitted to be kept, fed, or harbored in the residence halls. These issues may interfere with a student’s right to a clean environment conducive to study.
Animals are not permitted in public areas of residence halls. The housing of cats, dogs, rabbits, ferrets, snakes, and any illegal animals in the residence halls is prohibited. The only pets permitted are fish and one of the following animals per student: gerbils, hamsters, guinea pigs, mice, and rats. These small, caged, nonpoisonous animals and fish are permitted in the student’s room if the student completes and submits the pet registration form, and gains advance approval from the Residential Life Office and his/her roommates before the pet arrives on campus. A roommate’s request to live in a pet-free environment supersedes the right of the student to have a pet in his/her room.
Dogs, cats, snakes, rabbits, and ferrets are strictly forbidden in any residence hall facility.
Water-filled aquariums of no more than 10-gallon capacity may be maintained for fish, snails, and crustaceans. (Turtles, amphibians, other reptiles, and other aquarium-dwelling animals are not permitted.) All animals, including fish, must be taken home over semester breaks. The University will not be held responsible for the safety of fish or any animal in the event of electrical power failures.
All pets found in student housing that violate this policy will be immediately removed or confiscated and moved to a local shelter or the Humane Society. Students will be charged a $50 fine for violation of this policy and charged for any damages to the facility. Residential Life reserves the right to determine if an animal is appropriate.
Absolutely. Any student may bring a vehicle to campus. For safety and security, all vehicles parked on campus must be registered with our Department of Public Safety and must display a permit. Visit the Parking Policies page for more information.
A Resident Assistant (RA) is an upperclassman who lives on your floor and serves as the first point of contact for students. This person was selected through an application and screening process and has been given training in a variety of issues facing college students. RAs are required to be on their floors on a regular basis and get to know each of their residents.
A Moderator is an upperclassman student who supervises a Small Living Unit (SLU). A Moderator is the student staff member who is also a contact person for students who might have concerns. Freshmen students do not typically live in a Small Living Unit, but are encouraged to attend programs and become involved with SLU initiatives.
Yes, with a minimum of ten other interested students. Go to the New Club Process page for the procedures and paperwork.
Summer jobs and internships are posted in the Career Services handshake database for OWU students. You may access handshake by visting the Career Services website and clicking the BishopLink icon. Many more opportunities can be found in the Students section of the Career Services website. Students are welcome to talk with a career professional to discuss options and strategies for finding summer opportunities; stop by during our daily drop-in hours on Monday through Friday from 1-3 p.m. at HWCC 324, email careers@owu.edu, or call x3152 for an appointment.
Career Services professional staff can help you learn more about the Bishop Externship program. Externships are short (1-5 days) practical experiences which will allow OWU students to explore a potential career path, gain valuable job experience, and engage with OWU alumni working in various career fields and industries. Externships are held during OWU breaks in various locations throughout the country.
Career Services can help you explore and consider various post-graduate options, including graduate school, employment, and Gap Year programs and adventures like the Peace Corps. Upcoming career & grad school fairs, on-campus interviews, information sessions, and other events can be found on the Career Services website. Individual advising appointments are available to assist you with your search and offer additional ways to strengthen your preparation, including services such as resume and cover letter/personal statement review and mock interviews. Start exploring your options now by visiting the Career Services website, stopping by during our daily drop-in hours on Monday through Friday from 1-3 p.m. at HWCC 324, or calling x3152 or emailing careers@owu.edu to schedule an appointment.
No, students can purchase a used computer or bring one from home. For more information, go to the Information Services Self-Help Site.
Recommendations for student laptops:
Recommended Accessories:
Recommendations for student desktop:
Recommended Accessories:
Students may want to bring a mid-range or higher-end color inkjet printer for personal in-room printing. Personal printers cannot be used on our wireless network so a printer cable is needed. (Black-and-white laser printers are available in most public-access computer labs and students receive a per-semester quota of free printing)
Note that these are recommendations only. Students may do just fine if they have equipment that is below these specs. Many students also bring other mobile devices such as smart phones, iPods, or tablets to campus and connect to our wireless network with them.
For more information, go to the Information Services Self-Help Site.
OWU Information Services fully supports both Macs and PCs, and the faculty have the choice to use either. You’ll find that a majority use PCs while certain departments, such as Fine Arts and Chemistry are almost exclusively Macs. Computer labs on campus run a mix of MacOS and Windows. Your computer choice is your personal preference, and all kinds of computers–including Linux–are welcome on campus. Macs, PCs, and most Linux distributions are able to effectively utilize University computing resources.
Several computer labs on campus, including locations in Hayes and Welch Halls as well as Beeghly Library, are available to all students 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For more information, go to the Information Services Self-Help Site.
Yes, the entire campus is wireless. Once you arrive on campus you can receive the wireless signal and log onto the network using your OWU (email) username and password. You may also have the option to hard-wire connect in individual rooms in some residential halls, fraternity houses, and Small Living Units. (Not available in Stuyvesant Hall, 4, 23, and 35 Williams Drive, or 119 Oak Hill Avenue.) For more information, go to the Information Services Self-Help Site.
OWU has entered into partnership with GovConnection to make high-quality laptops, desktops, and other computer equipment available for purchase by OWU students, faculty, and staff as well as their families. To learn more about this program, go to the OWU GovConnection website.
Every student, faculty and staff gets a BishopApps account (Google Apps for Education) that includes email, calendar, chat, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, sites, Blogger, Picasa, YouTube, and much more. BishopApps is available from any computer with an internet connection. Microsoft Office 365 is available for free to students. See our Microsoft Office page for details. Office is also available in computer labs and includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access. Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome are the primary Web browsers, although Apple Safari and Microsoft Internet Explorer can also be used. Sophos is our campus-wide anti-virus program, which is available for university owned computers. Students can download the Sophos home edition for free here: Sophos Home.
All students pay a technology fee as part of their campus expenses. This fee includes computer support.
You can:
Ohio Wesleyan University offers a wide variety of dining options on campus. With our food service provider, AVI Fresh, every student with a meal plan has unlimited access to dining halls such as Smith Dining Hall (open 24/7 right next beside the residential halls) and Ham-Wil's The Marketplace. Other dining options include Merrick Café, Science Center Café, The Bishop Market at Bradford Milligan Hall, and Bishop Café and Grille.
For more information, visit AVI Fresh.
Students living on campus are required to participate in a University meal plan. There are three plan options offered. New students typically participate in the middle-sized meal plan unless otherwise requested. No changes to the selected meal plan are permitted after the second week of each semester. For more information, go to Dining Services.
All students who live on campus are required to participate in a University Meal Plan. Rare exceptions will be considered for those students with medical conditions or membership in religious organizations with strict dietary guidelines that cannot be accommodated by the University’s food service vendor. For more information, go to Dining Services.
Read about OWU’s History & Traditions.
Yes. Hayes Hall is an all-female residence hall. There are no all-male residence halls on OWU’s campus. All other halls on campus besides Hayes are coeducational residence halls.
We make every effort to match you with a compatible roommate; for this reason it is crucial that the information you provide on your Housing Application is as honest and complete as possible. Learning to live with a roommate is often one of the most significant learning experiences of being at college. It is important to make an effort to communicate your concerns with each other to try to resolve the problems. We also take into consideration that not all living situations will work out as they are assigned. Should problems come up, talk to your Resident Assistant for some help or suggestions. If problems still persist without resolution, you and your RA should meet with your RLC to discuss some options.
Room changes can be made during the year, however availability depends upon the amount of space available. There is a two-week freeze at the beginning and end of each semester in which no student will be given permission to move. If you wish to trade rooms with another student or move to another room on campus, you will need to complete a Room Change Request Form, which is available in the Residential Life Office, HWCC 213.
Learning to live in a community with roommates is an important part of the residential experience; therefore, incoming students are assigned to rooms with roommates. Students who need assigned to a single room as a medical necessity should contact the Residential Life Office as early as possible to learn about the housing accommodation process.
If incoming students indicate on their housing applications that their needs cannot be met under the typical housing assignment process, the Residential Life Office will work with that student to address the issue(s) and identify a living arrangement to meet the individual student’s needs.
We rely heavily on the information provided by students on their Housing Application, so you’ll want to make sure your student fills out the form as honestly and completely as possible. Things like being a morning person or a night owl and favorite types of music really do matter. Students also are able to choose their own roommates ahead of time by listing those names on their housing application. Read more at Office of Residential Life Housing Selection.
If there is a problem in your residence hall room that needs attention from maintenance staff, contact your RA as soon as possible to have him/her submit a work request. It is important for you to understand that personnel from Buildings & Grounds will enter your room even if you are not present in order to fix the problem.
No! Candles and incense are prohibited in student rooms. Please leave these things at home.
Current students signed up for residential housing during the upcoming academic year are permitted to store a limited amount of belongings on campus over the summer. Because storage space is limited, it is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Once University storage rooms are full, students seeking storage will need to secure off-campus alternatives.
Storage areas are not accessible during vacation periods and summer recess, and students may be assessed a fee for emergency access during these times. However, students who are registered for Summer Session will be allowed to store belongings, if storage space is still available.
Students are prohibited from storing any hazardous or dangerous items and will be responsible for any damages resulting from their failure to comply with this prohibition. Flammables, liquids, or items that violate the OWU Code of Student Conduct are strictly prohibited. Student-owned furniture, refrigerators, and rugs also may not be stored in University storage areas.
For more information, check out the Residential Storage Policy page.
If a student is found to be in violation of a rule or policy governing Residential Life, that student may be referred to Student Conduct by a Residential Life staff member (RA/Moderator/RLC.)
All of the residence halls are locked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Students have access to the residential facilities with their OWU card. It is very important for students to not allow persons whom they do not know to enter the building.
The OWU Department of Public Safety has policies and services in place intended to protect the Ohio Wesleyan campus and to assure the safety and well being of its community members. Public Safety officers work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and strive to uphold University policies and state and federal laws. There is an RA on duty in resident halls each evening from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. There is also an RLC on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Ohio Wesleyan also uses an emergency notification system to share urgent information via text, telephone, and email. The University enrolls you automatically to receive email alerts via your owu.edu email address and text alerts via your cell phone of record. If you wish, you are able to add more contact points (including your parents) for additional email, text, and/or voice messages. For more information about campus safety, visit the Campus Safety section of the website.
The student or students responsible for damage resulting from abuse of facilities, negligence, or means other than those attributed to normal deterioration will be expected to assume the cost of repair or replacement. If the responsible individual or individuals are unknown, then the occupants of the corridor/hall will be be expected to assume the cost of repair or replacement. Community damage is calculated by taking the total amount of all damage and dividing it by the number of residents living in that hall/area. Community damage charges on a student account are not subject to appeal.