A new service will help students to choose their dormitory roommates and better avoid bad roommates and will be implemented by Residence Life and the UA next year.

By using roommateclick.com, incoming students will be able to see the profiles of other incoming UA students, and make requests to Residence Life accordingly, said Pam Obando, associate director of Residence Life, marketing and outreach.

Individuals living both on- and off-campus will be able to disclose facts about themselves, including whether or not they smoke, what their party habits are like and how they feel about pets, to better avoid disputes.

Following Wednesday’s stabbing, some students said a better roommate matching system is necessary.

“”You have to be truthful to make (roommate matching) work,”” said Mark Molera, a pre-business freshman. “”I feel kind of unsafe, but at the same time, I trust all the people in my hall,”” he said.

Amber Hruska, a veterinarian sciences freshman who lives on the Graham side of the Graham-Greenlee residence hall, said she thinks there are flaws both in the ways roommates are currently placed and in the process one must go through to change rooms.

“”They say they won’t change your room for just any reason because they can’t have too many people switched around,”” Hruska said. “”But if they (had tried) to find a way to re-match people (who) are having that many problems, they could have done something about the situation a little sooner.””

Since Hruska is living in the north wing of Graham-Greenlee, opposite to where the stabbing happened, she said the stabbing is not affecting many of her fellow residents.

“”We had a meeting Wednesday night and students were asking about policy changes and whether or not our doors would be more secured,”” she said. “”They said that the policies would stay the same, that they didn’t want anything changed in such a traumatic time and they had no plans to change it in the future. So, our doors are staying open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. like they have all year.””

Although conflicts between roommates happen often, Wednesday’s stabbing between two roommates living in the Graham-Greenlee dormitory was the first of its kind, university officials said.

“”A lot of times disputes come from basic living arrangements,”” Obando said. “”Today, students don’t grow up living with a roommate and that can make the situation difficult when they live in residence halls.””

Right now, students who live in dormitories fill out roommate agreement forms that discuss their individual feelings on music, the times they are most productive and their thoughts on guests coming over, Obando said.

Although the UA does not currently have a roommate matching system, Obando said residence life does honor mutual roommate requests.

In light of disputes, she added, Residence Life tries to make alternate accommodations.

“”Once they’ve checked in they can sign up to move based on availability,”” Obando said. “”With space tight this year that’s difficult.””

Roommate disputes often surround issues such as cleanliness, having friends over and the borrowing of another person’s things.

“”That’s a big one,”” Obando said of the disputes that can be caused from borrowing and sharing items.

According to court documents, Galareka Harrison, a public administration freshman, became upset when her roommate, Mia Henderson, a biology freshman, filed an Aug. 28 police report in which Harrison was the primary suspect of theft and forgery.

Rachel Bennett, a freshman physiology major, said that she feels like the slaying could have been avoided by simple communication.

“”It’s sad that some people can’t resolve their issues with words, but yet have to use violence.””

-Shain Bergan and Brian Kimball contributed to this story