Overview
In this module, you'll learn what a housing cycle is and why it's the foundational structure in Housing.Cloud. Understanding this core concept helps you see how everything else—applications, room assignments, meal plans—fits together.
Time Needed for this PLS: 10-15 minutes
What you'll learn:
- The definition of a housing cycle
- How cycles differ from applications
- Why cycles are time-bounded containers
- How cycles organize your housing operations
What is a Housing Cycle?
A housing cycle is a time-bounded container that manages the complete student housing processes for a specific term or semester. It's the central organizing structure in Housing.Cloud that connects applications, room assignments/selection, roommate matching, meal plans, and move-in/out scheduling.
Think of a housing cycle as a master folder for one academic term—everything related to housing for that period lives inside it.
Key Characteristics
Time-Bounded -- Every cycle has a start and end date representing when students actually live in housing.
Example: Fall 2025 Housing, Start: August 15, 2025 End: December 15, 2025
Self-Contained -- All housing activities for that term happen within the cycle. A student's application, roommate group, room assignment, and meal plan all belong to one cycle.
Student-Facing -- Students interact with your cycle through phases—specific time windows when they can apply, find roommates, select rooms, and schedule move-in.
Example: Your "Fall 2025 to Spring 2026 Housing" cycle might run from August 2025 through December 2025 to align just with the Fall billing dates, but the cycle's name during application and selection is for the full-year if the majority of students who live on in Fall will be in the same location for the following Spring. Students apply in March 2025, select rooms in April, and move in during August—all within the same cycle container.
Cycle vs. Application: What's the Difference?
One key factor is understanding how a housing cycle differs from a housing application.
Housing Cycle
- The complete housing process container
- Includes application, roommate matching, room selection/assignments, move-in/out, meal plans, and billing
- Has start and end dates matching the respective term/semester time period
- Contains phases that control when students can take actions for respective processes
Housing Application
- How a student gains access to the cycle
- A form students fill out to express interest in that cycle
- Creates an application record tied to that cycle
- One component within the larger cycle
Think of It This Way: The cycle is the classroom. The application is the enrollment form. You need to enroll to participate in the class, but the class itself contains much more than just enrollment—lectures, assignments, exams, and a final grade.
How They Work Together
- Admin creates cycle: "Fall 2025 First-Year Housing"
- Admin assigns application form to the cycle
- Student completes the application form
- Admin approves the application
- Student can now participate in cycle activities: roommate matching, room selection, meal plan choice
- Student becomes a resident when assigned a room
Why Cycles Are the Heart of Housing.Cloud
Almost everything you configure connects to a housing cycle. Understanding this connection helps you see how the pieces fit together.
What Lives Inside a Cycle
Application - Every cycle needs an application
Phases - Application, roommate selection, room selection phases are defined in the cycle
Forms & Docs - Forms, roommate questionnaires, and/or documents (contracts) can be assigned to cycles
Rulesets - Room and roommate matching rules are tied to cycles
Residencies - Room assignments exist within a cycle
Meal Plans - Cycles determine which meal plans students can choose
Fees/Finance - Fees and costs can be set up to be specific to a cycle and connect to term codes
Moving Groups - Check-in time slots are organized within cycles
The Big Picture: When you build tags in PLS-4, you'll use them to control cycle access. When you build forms in PLS-5, you'll assign them to cycles. The cycle is the central hub that organizes your entire housing operation.
Running Multiple Concurrent Cycles
Many institutions run multiple housing cycles at the same time for different student populations. This allows you to customize the housing experience for each group.
Common Multi-Cycle Examples
By Class Year:
- First-Year Fall 2025 Housing
- Returning Student Fall 2025 Housing
Why separate: Different application requirements, earlier room selection for returning students, ability to assign/select the two populations within each other
By Housing Type:
- Residential Fall 2025 (on-campus students)
- Commuter Fall 2025 (meal plans only, no housing)
Why separate: Commuters don't need room selection phases
By Term:
- Fall 2025 (August - December)
- Spring 2026 (January - May)
- Summer 2026 (May - August)
Why separate: Different residence periods and billing cycles
How Tags Control Cycle Access
When you run multiple cycles, you use applicability tags to ensure students only see the cycles relevant to them.
Example:
"Fall 2025 First-Year Housing" | Applicability Tags: First-Year Excluded Tags: Commuter
Result: Only first-year students who are not commuters can see this cycle
Common Mistake: Forgetting to add exclusion tags. If you don't exclude "Commuter" from a residential cycle, commuter students will see the housing application even though they shouldn't live on campus. Always test with different student types to verify access works correctly.
Cycles and Residencies
When a student is assigned a room within a cycle, a residency record is created.
What is a Residency?
A residency is a student's room assignment for a specific housing cycle. It tracks:
- Which cycle the assignment belongs to
- Which building, suite (suite/apt, if applicable), room and bed the student is assigned to
- Start and end dates (inherited from the cycle)
- Residency status (Assigned, Checked In, Checked Out)
- Roommates and meal plan
The Relationship
One Cycle = Many Residencies, one for each student assigned housing.
A single cycle (Fall 2025) contains hundreds of individual residency records.
One Student = Multiple Residencies Over Time. A student will have different residency records across cycles (Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, etc.).
Example:
- Sarah applies to "Fall 2025 First-Year Housing" cycle
- She's approved and selects East Hall, Room 201, Bed A
- A residency record is created with dates August 15, 2025 - May 15, 2026
Key Takeaways
- Housing cycles are time-bounded containers for all housing operations in a specific term
- Cycles are not the same as applications—the application gets students into the cycle
- You can run multiple concurrent cycles for different student populations
- Tags control who can access each cycle
- Everything connects to cycles—applications, residencies, forms, rulesets, meal plans
- Residencies are individual room assignments within a cycle
What's Next: PLS-3B
Now that you understand what a housing cycle is, you're ready to learn what components go into a cycle and how they work together.
In PLS-3B: What Goes in a Cycle, you'll learn:
- How tags control cycle access and eligibility
- How forms and rulesets are assigned to cycles
- How meal plans, documents, and inventory connect to cycles
- How all these components work together