Housing FAQs

No. SMCC and the MCCS strongly encourage all learners to receive COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters. SMCC still has other immunization requirements in place. Please visit our Immunization Information Page for more details.

Refer to your assignment letter for move-in date and time.

You will get an email from the Housing Office to your SMCC email on the week of July 11th.

Students will be given their roommate’s name and email during the summer. This will allow for students to communicate with one another and learn more about each other.

The Residential Life office tries to place as many students in the areas and rooms they request. But not all requests can be accommodated. The Residential Life office does have a housing freeze in effect for the first two weeks of the semester. After that, our office can try and accommodate moves, but we can’t guarantee them.

The college provides all Spring Point and Surfsite rooms with desks, desk chairs, mini fridges, microwaves, tall dressers, mattress, and bed frames. In Orion Hall, students are provided with desk, desk chairs, mini fridges, microwaves, tall dressers, mattresses, couch/chair and bed frames.

In Spring Point and Surfsite you are allowed to have LED string lights, small house plants, rugs, coffee makers, crockpots, desk lamps, desktops, laptops, fans, TVs, game systems, blender, and extension cords with the on-off switch. In Orion you are allowed to have LED string lights, small house plants, rugs, coffee makers, crockpots, desk lamps, desktops, laptops, fans, TVs, game systems, blender, hot plate, and extension cords with the on-off switch. If you are living in Spring Point, remember that you need to provide your own toilet paper, paper towels, and bathroom cleaning products.

Download a quick, but not comprehensive, list of What You Can and Cannot Bring to The Residence Halls from the Housing and Residence Life forms page on My Maine Guide, the student portal.

Candles, wax warmers, air fryers, toasters, toaster ovens, personal mattresses, air conditioners, alcohol, marijuana, paraphernalia of alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco products. Southern Maine Community College is a dry campus.

Download a quick, but not comprehensive, list of What You Can and Cannot Bring to The Residence Halls from the Housing and Residence Life forms page on My Maine Guide, the student portal.

Your SMCC student email.

In South Portland, all residence hall students are required to have a meal plan. Student are automatically enrolled in the Block 159 Meal Plan – Equivalent to 10 meals per week and $200 flex cash. Students can change their meal plans within the first two weeks of the semester. This can be done at the dining hall and cafe locations on campus. Orion Hall students are not required to have a meal plan, but there are commuter meal plans available. View the Dining Hall website for more information.

In Orion Hall, laundry is free to all students residing in the building. In Surfsite and Spring Point students are required to purchase a laundry card, for $5.00. This laundry card will need to be loaded with money on it to allow for laundry to be done. Spring Point and Surfsite have laundry card machines. These machines will allow you to load and purchase a card. The machine only takes a $5.00 for the first card to be purchased, after that it will only take $5, $10, and $20 dollar bills.

Bills are assigned to the account on July 12th and the first payment is due by August 1st. For more information and payment plan options, please call the Student Accounts Office at 207-741-5530.

Yes, students are allowed to have vehicles on campus. All vehicles must be registered with our Security office. In order to register your car, you will bring your car registration and class schedule to the Security office.

There are currently two residence halls on the South Portland Campus: Surfsite Hall and Spring Point Hall. Surfsite Hall houses about 145 men and women in triple-occupancy rooms on three floors, with three student Resident Assistants. Spring Point Hall, the newer hall on campus, houses about 300 men and women in quad, triple, and double rooms with connecting bathrooms (two rooms with a total of three–five students of the same gender sharing a bath). The bathroom has a separate shower stall and toilet stall and two sinks. There are seven-eight student Resident Assistants in Spring Point Hall. Each room includes an extra-long twin bed, desk, and desk chair for each resident and a combination of wardrobes with drawers or chests of drawers and a microwave–refrigerator–freezer combination unit for residents to share. A professional Resident Director lives in each Hall.

The Midcoast Campus has one residence hall: Orion Hall. Orion Hall is co-ed and has room for about 80 students. It offers single or double suites, each with a bedroom, a kitchenette with a microwave and refrigerator/freezer, a living area and a private bathroom. The hall also has a laundry room, vending machines, a quiet study area and a lounge area.

The Maine Community College System Code of Conduct applies to all students at SMCC. The Code prohibits alcohol and drugs on campus, including in the residence halls, regardless of a student’s age. The Code also prohibits students from being on campus while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, regardless of a student’s age, and from being knowingly in the presence of alcohol or drugs. In addition, the Residence Hall Agreement prohibits any alcohol or drug containers, even if they are empty. Students who violate these policies are subject to sanctions for violating this portion of the Residence Hall Agreement and/or charges under the Student Code of Conduct. Students are responsible for and can also be charged for conduct violations and/or violations of the Residence Hall Agreement due to the behavior of their guests. Sanctions vary depending on the circumstances surrounding a particular violation but can be punitive (fines assessed to the student account) and/or educational (papers, community service). Violations of the Residence Hall Agreement or the Student Code of Conduct can lead to dismissal from the residence halls and/or the College.

Smoking and chewing tobacco are not allowed in the residence halls or anywhere on college property. SMCC is a smoke- Vape and tobacco-free college. The use of any tobacco product including e-cigarettes is prohibited on any SMCC property.

Students are welcome to seek apartments or room rentals in the local community. Prices vary widely depending on the distance from the College and the specific town and/or neighborhood. We highly recommend students use all the caution one would normally use when investigating a property and signing a lease. Because so many search engines are widely available to the public, the College does not maintain any off-campus housing listings. However, students may use the campus app or the bulletin board available in the Campus Center to post flyers to try to find a roommate.

Rooms are equipped with cable TV (one jack per room, the student provides the TV and the coaxial cable) and high-speed internet (two jacks per room — wired – student provides the ethernet cable). There is also Wi-Fi coverage throughout the residence hall. Students pay a fee each semester in addition to the room and meal plan for these services. Fees are subject to change; please check the billing section of the website for current fees. Students may purchase digital phone from Time Warner or contact the phone company for wired phone service, but most students just use a cell phone.

Yes, you may bring a stereo, computer, gaming system, etc. We also recommend headphones in the event that your roommate(s) and/or neighbors are trying to sleep or study while you are using these devices.

No, residents may not bring their own refrigerators or microwaves. A micro-fridge is provided in every room for the residents to share with their roommate(s). The micro-fridge is a combination of a fridge, freezer and a microwave.

The Residence Hall Application requests basic information that will be used to match roommates in addition to the information the College already has available (major, age, etc.). Students may request a specific person as a roommate. These requests are accommodated if possible provided both students request each other and both students submit their completed application packets together before rooms are assigned.

The College reserves the right to make and alter room and roommate assignments to meet the needs of the College. This means that your room assignment could change between when you receive it and when you arrive for move-in or that you could be consolidated mid-semester to make room for other students. It is important to note that students change significantly even after only a few weeks of being at College. This is one reason why our resident assistant staff is well-trained on mediation techniques so that students can learn to live with each other happily. Mediation is expected before a room change will be considered. Only emergency room changes (as determined by the staff) are permitted during the first two weeks of each semester, and these may not be possible if all rooms are full.

All mail is delivered to the front desk at Spring Point Hall in South Portland and Orion Hall at the Midcoast Campus in Brunswick. Resident Assistants will hand-deliver mail to students in the evenings, leaving mail or package slips in the student’s room if the student is not home. Package slips and validated student IDs are needed to obtain packages at the Spring Point Hall front desk.

The mailing address for the South Portland residence halls is:

Student Name
Southern Maine Community College
Name of Hall, Room Number
83 Fort Road
South Portland, ME 04106

The mailing address for Orion Hall is:

Student Name
Southern Maine Community College
Orion Hall, Room Number
29 Sewall Street
Brunswick, ME 04011

The physical address for Spring Point Hall is 83 Fort Road, South Portland. The physical address for Surfsite Hall is 75 Surfsite Road, South Portland. The physical address for Orion Hall is 29 Sewall Street, Brunswick. You may need the physical address of your hall to register to vote in South Portland, but you should not direct any mail or packages to the Surfsite Hall physical address. Delivery services like UPS and FedEx cannot deliver to Surfsite directly; please do not send packages to this address in order to avoid lost packages. These packages are frequently misdelivered somewhere else on Surfsite Road – though their tracking services will note they were delivered to SMCC because they do not understand the difference between Surfsite Hall and Surfsite Road — and are never recovered.

All resident students in South Portland are required to purchase a meal plan. Meal plan offerings vary from year to year in response to student needs and requests. Typically each meal plan offers a set number of all-you-care-to-eat meals in the dining hall each week and some “flex cash” for use in the SeaWolves Café each semester. A student uses his/her student ID card for payment at the register. In the Dining Hall, one meal deducts each time the card is swiped. In the Café, flex cash debits by the amount spent. For example, a student on the Block 223 meal plan (the default plan) can eat about 14 meals each semester. If a student on this plan eats every meal offered, he will run out of meals before classes end in December. The flex cash is for the entire semester; unused portions roll over from Fall to Spring but are forfeited after the Spring Semester. The required meal plan cost per semester varies from year to year. Please check the billing section of the web site or call the Housing and Residence Life Office for the most up-to-date rates. Whatever the cost, the price includes costs for overhead and is the same for the fall as it is for the spring, regardless of student usage.

Beacon Bucks: Students who would prefer not to carry cash on campus may deposit funds into a Beacon Bucks account for use in the Dining Hall and the cafés on both the South Portland and Midcoast campuses. There is a minimum initial deposit of $50 and subsequent $10 minimum deposits. These funds are debited from the student’s Beacon Bucks account on a dollar-for-dollar basis. For example, if a student purchases a $5 all-you-care-to-eat lunch meal, $5 is debited from the account. Beacon Bucks balances remain active until a student ceases to be enrolled and then are forfeited, so it is in the student’s best interest to deposit only funds that he or she intends to use. Beacon Bucks are considered part of a meal plan by the IRS and are not subject to sales tax. Resident students most often use Beacon Bucks when they run out of flex cash on their meal plan. Beacon Bucks can also, conveniently, be added to a student’s account through the dining hall’s online form.

Currently, both Surfsite and Spring Point Hall are co-ed by suite (the same gender sharing a bath but could have opposite gender next door and/or across the hall).

The only pets allowed are fish – maximum of one 10-gallon tank per room.

There is no curfew for resident students; they may come and go from their assigned hall at their leisure. Guests are welcome with the permission of all the roommates and suitemates and must be escorted by their resident host at all times. A resident of one hall is considered a guest in the other hall. Guests must show a valid picture ID. Residents are responsible for the behavior of their guests and must escort their guests whenever they are in the building, including when in the resident’s room. Guests may not cohabitate with resident students. The professional staff reserves the right to ask guests to leave who have been visiting for an excessive number of days.

The residence halls close for the following breaks: Thanksgiving, Winter, and Spring Break. All students must leave the residence halls for those breaks but may usually leave their belongings. When students may not leave their belongings, they will be notified at least two weeks prior to the break. Check the Residence Life Guide for closing and opening dates and times.

Resident Assistants and Student Life staff plan activities for students who live in the halls. RAs plan movie nights, bowling, pizza nights, game nights, trips to hockey and baseball games, holiday parties, snow football and more! Students who live in the residence halls are encouraged to get involved in helping plan these activities or other campus clubs.

A Resident Assistant is a full-time student who has been selected and trained in areas of peer counseling, activity programming, college policies and other topics to assist in helping you. They serve as primary resources to voice concerns or go to in a time of crisis. Announcements are made for openings for RA positions for the following academic semester when openings are available. Applications can be picked up from a Resident Director or from the Office of Student Life behind the front desk at Spring Point Hall. Resident Assistants do not get a salary, but do receive a free single room and meal plan when the dining hall is open.

Please check the Tuition and Fees section of the web site for up-to-date charges.

Eligible students who submit complete application packets are assigned to residence hall spaces on a first-come, first-served basis until the halls are full. Then they are assigned in that order to the appropriate waiting list (male or female). Students on the waiting list will be contacted when a space is available for them until the waiting list is exhausted. Students could remain on the waiting list well into the middle of the semester. Students may remain on the on-campus waiting list until they get an on-campus space or they opt to find an apartment. It is important that students who do find apartments cancel their housing space immediately to avoid being placed and losing their deposit. Students and their families are comfortable with different levels of risk when it comes to making the decision to stay on the waiting list, and only you can decide which options are right for you. Every year is different, and the Housing and Residence Life Staff has no way to accurately guess what the likelihood is that an individual on the waiting list will be offered housing or when. Again, if you choose to find off-campus housing, you should email reslife@smccME.edu right away to take your name off the waiting list. Once you are offered a space, you will forfeit your damage deposit if you refuse it or if you accept it and then cancel the space.

Unfortunately, we have no accommodations for married students at this time.

The Housing and Residence Life Office must request the Student Accounts Office to refund deposits. This is done as eligible cancellations are received. The Student Accounts Office Staff then credits the deposit to the student’s account at the Student Accounts Office. Assuming there are no other charges on the account, students can expect to receive a check from the Student Accounts Office when checks are cut. For a schedule regarding when checks will be cut, students should contact the Student Accounts Office.

A residence hall application cannot be processed until the financial aid award has been made. In the event that there is not enough anticipated aid to cover the entire cost of education and the damage deposit and/or the student has not yet submitted the FAFSA and/or the Financial Aid Office has not yet received the student’s FAFSA, the student’s residence hall application will be considered incomplete. If the Financial Aid Office has received the student’s FAFSA but not yet awarded the student, the application will be held until the award is made and then processed. However, the date the application is received will be the date that it can be processed.

Yes. Students who choose to move off campus after the Fall Semester but remain enrolled at the College will forfeit the $100 damage deposit.

Please contact Disability Services at disabilityservices@smccME.edu to request accommodations. One of the disability services coordinators must approve any disability-related accommodations and notify the Office of Housing and Residence Life of the accommodations.

Housing applicants must submit proof of two measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccinations, as well as a current diphtheria/tetanus shot (one within the past 10 years) to the Advising Office prior to submitting a Housing Application Packet.  Immunization forms must be signed by a licensed health care provider. Find more information on our Immunizations webpage – or learn more through the student portal.

Forms and other official proof of immunizations can be faxed to the SMCC Advising Office at 207-741-5760 – or submitted to the Advising Office secure online dropbox. If you have questions regarding immunization processing, please contact Diane Scott in the SMCC Advising Office at 207-741-5734.