Student moving in her belongs on a cart
Aug 25

Welcome Home!

Now that you have your new home all set up and you are getting acclimated to campus and classes, here are a few tips to make your on-campus living experience easy to navigate!

Penn State id+ Card

Keep your Penn State id+ Card with you at all times. You need to use it access your residence hall, Campus Meal Plan, and LionCash. If you misplace it, you may purchase a temporary ID card at the Commons Desk for $5, or purchase for permanent ID at the id+ Office for $20. 

Room Key

Your room key  has been issued to you - it is not to be used by any other person. If you are locked out of your room, you can request a loaner room key through eLiving and then pick up from the Commons Desk; the loaner key must be returned with 2-hours or you will be charged $64.00 per core for a replacement. Renovated buildings in North and East have automatic locking mechanisms - the door cannot remain unlocked; you must take your room key with you, even to the restroom, to access your room. 

Campus Meal Plan

  • Your Campus Meal Plan works in every dining operation on campus, including dining commons, residential operations, convenience stores, HUB Dining, Cafe Laura, Panera (on-campus locations only), Starbucks (on-campus locations only) Creamery, Beaver Stadium, Bryce Jordan Center, Pegula. Be sure to say "Campus Meal Plan" to the cashier, so the correct button is used on the register.
  • You do not need to use LionCash on campus - save your LionCash funds for laundry and off-campus purchases.
  • Your dining dollars will carry over from fall to spring semester (provided you have an active spring semester HFS Contract), but any balance remaining at the end of spring semester are forfeited.
  • If you run of dining dollars, the system will pull available funds from LionCash and still provide the same discount structure
  • You can modify your fall semester Campus Meal Plan level in eLiving, under My Info > My Meal Plan section until Noon Friday December 17.

LionCash

Use LionCash to pay for laundry, vending machines, copy machines, and purchases at participating merchants. Funds can be added online and are available for immediate use. LionCash funds carry over semester-to-semester, year-to-year.

Laundry

  • Every residence hall offers access to a laundry room, which features high-efficiency washers and dryers. LionCash is the only acceptable method of payment for laundry.
  • Not interested in doing laundry? Utilize the new Tide Laundry Program! Lockers are available in each Commons Building.

Maintenance

  • Be sure to complete your Room Inspection form in eLiving within 7 days of check-in. Indicate any issues with your room, to avoid damage charges when you check-out.
  • Something wrong in your room?  Submit a FIXIT request, and Housing Operations will schedule the maintenance work.

Package Delivery

  • Mailing Address: Please use the University's identified mailing address. If the system that you are ordering from says that the address is not valid, you need to override the suggestion or mark "use this address". The University does not have street addresses. Using your room/hall for your address will ensure that your package is delivered - our carriers know how to process packages addressed to the 16802 zip code. Use of other addresses may cause issues with the delivery of your package.
  • Expecting a package? Wait for an email from eLiving to verify that the package has been received and processed by the Commons Desk. Although you may receive a delivery confirmation email from the vendor, you must wait for the eLiving email to confirm it's ready for you to pick up. Then head to your Commons Desk and present your Penn State id+ Card. There may be a delay in the beginning of the semester to process your package, so we appreciate your patience.

Future Housing

Before you know, you'll hear others talking about housing plans for the next academic year. Please do not rush into any decision early in the process! There is a lot of misinformation out there - be sure to attend a Housing Information Session to learn more about your housing options and the process to explore what will work best for you.