If you want to live on campus next year, it’s time to get reacquainted with your eLiving page. The contract request process begins today at noon for all contract types at University Park for the 2011-2012 school year. Here are the important dates to keep in mind:

Today– Today is the first day you can start submitting contract requests, which can be done by logging on to eLiving and hitting the ‘Request Contract’ button (crazy, I know). Housing offers are made via lottery, so no real rush is necessary, as long as you submit before the deadline.

Dec. 2– All contract requests for reserved group, Eastview Terrace or Nittany Apartments must be submitted by noon. Offers will be made at 5 p.m. and students have until Dec. 6 at noon to accept offers for Eastview Terrace and Nittany Apartments, or Dec. 9 at noon for reserved group offers. This can be done by selecting the- wait for it- ‘Accept Contract’ button on your eLiving page. If no offer is made, students can submit a contract for a regular residence hall.

Jan. 20– Contract requests for regular residence halls must be submitted by noon. Offers will be made in three rounds:

• Round 1 (regular space): Offers made at 5 p.m. Jan. 20 and must be accepted by noon Jan. 24.
• Round 2 (regular space and supplemental): Offers made at 5 p.m. Jan. 24 and must be accepted by noon Jan. 27.
• Round 3 (supplemental): Offers made at 5 p.m. Jan 27 and must be accepted by noon Jan. 31.

Because not everyone will be lucky enough to receive offers of communal showers and the ever-comforting company of an R.A.,  a waitlist will open Feb. 4. Students who submitted requests but did not receive an offer will be added to the waitlist automatically, but the list will also be available for students who did not submit requests, live off campus, or whose offers expired, with a little grunt work (a.k.a logging on to eLiving, selecting ‘Waitlist’ and adding yourself to the list). Once on the waitlist, add eLiving to your bookmarks tab or make it your homepage so you don’t miss out on an offer.

Now, do some finger stretches and start submitting your requests!