Overview
Rulesets automate roommate matching and room assignments by enforcing your institution's housing policies. Using the tags you created in previous modules, you'll build hard rules (strict requirements) and soft rules (preferences) that power auto-assignment and guide student selection.
Duration: 15 minutes
What you'll learn: What rulesets are, the difference between hard and soft rules, how to create rules for roommate matching and room assignments, how to prioritize soft rules, and how to assign rulesets to cycles.
Prerequisites: Complete PLS-4A, PLS-4B, and PLS-4C
What Are Rulesets?
A ruleset is a collection of matching rules that define who can be roommates and which students can be assigned to which rooms. Rulesets use tags to enforce institutional policies automatically.
What rulesets do:
Enforce strict requirements (gender matching, ADA compliance, policy violations)
Optimize preferences (sleep schedule, study habits, major alignment)
Prevent incompatible pairings (opposite genders in suites, non-ADA students in ADA rooms)
Score roommate compatibility for auto-assignment
Where rulesets are used:
Auto-assignment workflows (system automatically assigns roommates and rooms)
Manual assignment validation (system warns if you try to violate a hard rule)
Student self-selection (system blocks selections that violate hard rules)
Rulesets Are Reusable: Create one ruleset and assign it to multiple housing cycles. If all your first-year cycles use the same matching logic, you only need one "First-Year Matching Ruleset."
Hard Rules vs Soft Rules
Hard Rules (Must Match)
How they work: Hard rules are strict requirements that cannot be violated. Assignments that break hard rules are blocked.
When to use hard rules:
Institutional policies that must never be violated
Legal or compliance requirements (ADA, gender policies)
Safety and security requirements
Examples:
Gender Identity tags must match between roommates
Students with "Accessibility Needs" must be assigned to rooms with "ADA Accessible" tag
Students cannot be assigned to rooms in buildings with conflicting tags (e.g., "Male" student → "Female Housing" building)
What happens: When running auto-assignment or manual assignment, the system will NOT allow assignments that violate hard rules. Students attempting self-selection that violates hard rules will see an error message.
Use Hard Rules Sparingly: Too many hard rules can make auto-assignment fail. Most institutions need only 1-3 hard rules. Save preferences for soft rules.
Soft Rules (Should Match)
How they work: Soft rules are preferences that guide matching but don't block assignments. The system tries to maximize soft rule matches but will proceed even if preferences can't be met.
When to use soft rules:
Compatibility preferences (sleep schedule, study habits)
Nice-to-have alignments (major, interests, hobbies)
Secondary considerations (class year matching for first-years)
Examples:
Sleep Schedule tags should match (prefer pairing Early Risers with Early Risers)
Study Habits tags should match
Major or academic program tags should align when possible
What happens: Auto-assignment scores each potential roommate pairing based on how many soft rules they satisfy. Higher-scoring matches are prioritized. If no perfect match exists, the system proceeds with the best available match.
Soft Rules Create Compatibility: Soft rules don't guarantee perfect matches, but they significantly improve roommate satisfaction by prioritizing compatible pairings when possible.
Rule Types: Roommates vs Rooms
Each rule applies to either roommate matching (person-to-person) or room assignment (person-to-inventory).
Roommate Rules (Person-to-Person)
Controls: Who can be roommates with whom
Examples:
Students with "Gender Identity: Male" must match roommates with "Gender Identity: Male"
Students with "Sleep Schedule: Early Riser" should match roommates with "Sleep Schedule: Early Riser"
Room Rules (Person-to-Inventory)
Controls: Which students can be assigned to which rooms
Examples:
Students with "Accessibility Needs" must be assigned to rooms with "ADA Accessible"
Students with "Honors Program" should be assigned to rooms with "Honors Housing"
Students with "Gender Identity: Female" must be assigned to rooms/buildings with "Female Housing"
Rulesets Use Both Profile and Application Tags: Unlike cycle/phase applicability (which only checks profile tags), rulesets check BOTH profile tags and application tags combined. This means tags from form responses (which create application tags) ARE used during auto-assignment and roommate matching. Sleep schedule preferences from your application form will power soft matching rules.
Creating a Ruleset
Step 1: Navigate to Setup → Rulesets
Step 2: Click "Create Ruleset"
Step 3: Enter a descriptive name
Good names: "First-Year Matching Ruleset," "Upperclass Matching 2025," "Honors Housing Rules"
Bad names: "Ruleset 1," "Test," "New Rules"
Step 4: Click "Create"
You now have an empty ruleset. Next, you'll add rules to it.
Creating Hard Rules
Example: Gender Identity Must Match (Roommate Rule)
Step 1: In your ruleset, click "New Rule"
Step 2: Configure the rule:
Rule Type: "Must" (this makes it a hard rule)
Tag 1: Select any Gender Identity tag (e.g., "Gender Identity: Male")
Scope: "Roommates" (person-to-person matching)
Logic: "Person with TAG1 must match roommate with TAG1"
Step 3: Click "Create Rule"
What this rule does: Students can only be assigned with roommates who have the same Gender Identity tag. A student with "Male" can only room with other "Male" students.
How Tag Matching Works: The rule checks if the student's Gender Identity tag matches their potential roommate's Gender Identity tag. Since "Gender Identity" is an exclusive category, each student has exactly one tag from this category, making matching straightforward.
Example: ADA Needs Must Match ADA Rooms (Room Rule)
Step 1: Click "New Rule"
Step 2: Configure:
Rule Type: "Must" (hard rule)
Tag 1: "Accessibility Needs" (profile/application tag)
Tag 2: "ADA Accessible" (inventory tag)
Scope: "Rooms" (person-to-inventory matching)
Logic: "Person with TAG1 must be assigned to inventory with TAG2"
Step 3: Click "Create Rule"
What this rule does: Students with "Accessibility Needs" tag can ONLY be assigned to rooms tagged "ADA Accessible." This ensures ADA compliance.
Creating Soft Rules
Example: Sleep Schedule Should Match (Roommate Rule)
Step 1: Click "New Rule"
Step 2: Configure:
Rule Type: "Should" (this makes it a soft rule)
Tag 1: Select any Sleep Schedule tag (e.g., "Sleep Schedule: Early Riser")
Scope: "Roommates"
Step 3: Click "Create Rule"
What this rule does: The system will TRY to match students with the same Sleep Schedule tag. If an Early Riser can be matched with another Early Riser, great. If not, the system will still proceed with a different match.
Example: Study Habits Should Match (Roommate Rule)
Step 1: Click "New Rule"
Step 2: Configure:
Rule Type: "Should"
Tag 1: Select a Study Habits tag (e.g., "Study Habits: Quiet Study")
Scope: "Roommates"
Step 3: Click "Create Rule"
Ordering Soft Rules by Priority
Soft rules are evaluated in top-to-bottom order. The rule at the top of your list has the highest priority. The system tries to satisfy higher-priority rules first.
How to Reorder Soft Rules
Step 1: In your ruleset, locate the soft rules section
Step 2: Click and drag the reorder icon (⋮⋮) next to a rule
Step 3: Move the rule up or down in the list
Step 4: Place your most important soft rule at the top, second-most important below it, etc.
Hard Rules Cannot Be Reordered: Hard rules are always enforced first, before any soft rules. You cannot change the priority of hard rules because they're all absolute requirements.
Example Priority Order
For a first-year matching ruleset, you might prioritize like this:
Hard Rule: Gender Identity must match (enforced absolutely)
Hard Rule: ADA needs must match ADA rooms (enforced absolutely)
Soft Rule (Priority 1): Sleep Schedule should match (most important preference)
Soft Rule (Priority 2): Study Habits should match (second-most important)
Soft Rule (Priority 3): Major should match (nice-to-have)
What happens during auto-assignment:
Hard rules are enforced (system won't match incompatible genders or assign non-ADA students to ADA rooms)
System tries to match Sleep Schedules first (highest soft priority)
If Sleep Schedule matches aren't possible, system tries Study Habits matches next
Major matching is considered last
Complete Ruleset Example
Here's a typical "First-Year Matching Ruleset" with both hard and soft rules:
Hard Rules
Gender Matching (Roommates): "Gender Identity: Male" must match roommate with "Gender Identity: Male" (and same for Female, Non-Binary)
ADA Compliance (Rooms): "Accessibility Needs" must be assigned to rooms with "ADA Accessible"
Soft Rules (in priority order)
Sleep Schedule (Roommates): "Sleep Schedule: Early Riser" should match roommate
Study Habits (Roommates): "Study Habits: Quiet Study" should match roommate
Substance-Free Preference (Rooms): "Housing Preference: Substance-Free" should be assigned to rooms with "Substance-Free Housing"
How this ruleset works:
Opposite genders will NEVER be matched as roommates (hard rule)
Students with accessibility needs will ALWAYS get ADA rooms (hard rule)
The system will TRY to match compatible sleep schedules (soft priority 1)
If sleep schedules can't match, system will TRY study habits (soft priority 2)
If substance-free rooms are available, students who prefer them will get them (soft priority 3)
Assigning Rulesets to Cycles
Once you've built a ruleset, assign it to housing cycles to activate it.
Step 1: Navigate to Setup → Cycles
Step 2: Open a housing cycle
Step 3: Navigate to the cycle's Settings or Configuration section
Step 4: In the "Ruleset" dropdown, select your ruleset
Step 5: Save the cycle
Result: This ruleset now governs auto-assignment, manual assignment validation, and student self-selection for this cycle.
Multiple Cycles, One Ruleset: You can assign the same ruleset to multiple cycles. If your Fall and Spring first-year housing use the same matching logic, assign the same ruleset to both cycles.
Editing and Managing Rulesets
Editing Rules
Click the edit icon next to any rule to modify its tags, type (Must/Should), or scope (Roommates/Rooms). Click "Update Rule" to save changes.
Deleting Rules
Click the delete icon next to a rule. Confirm deletion. The rule is permanently removed from the ruleset.
Duplicating Rulesets
In the ruleset list, click the duplicate icon next to a ruleset. This creates an exact copy that you can modify independently. Useful for creating slight variations of existing rulesets.
Don't Modify Active Rulesets Mid-Cycle: Changing hard rules during an active room selection process can cause unpredictable results. Students may lose access to rooms they could previously select. Make ruleset changes before opening cycles, not during selection.
Testing Your Ruleset
Before going live, test your ruleset to ensure it works as expected:
Create test students with different tag combinations
Assign your ruleset to a test cycle
Run auto-assignment on the test students (or manually attempt assignments)
Verify:
Hard rules are enforced (incompatible assignments are blocked)
Soft rules are optimized (compatible matches are prioritized)
Priority order works (higher soft rules are satisfied first)
Adjust rules if needed and test again
Common Ruleset Mistakes
Mistake 1: Too Many Hard Rules
Symptom: Auto-assignment fails to assign anyone because no students can satisfy all hard rules simultaneously.
Fix: Convert some hard rules to soft rules. Only keep hard rules for absolute requirements (gender matching, ADA compliance, critical policies).
Mistake 2: Soft Rules Not Ordered by Priority
Symptom: Auto-assignment prioritizes less important preferences over more important ones.
Fix: Reorder soft rules. Drag the most important soft rule to the top of the list.
Mistake 3: Critical Tags Missing from Profiles
Symptom: Gender matching rules don't work, or students can't access cycles despite having the right tags on their applications.
Cause: The tag exists on the application but not the profile. While rulesets check both sources, some tags (especially demographic data like gender) should exist on profiles to ensure they're available for all matching scenarios.
Fix: For critical matching tags (gender, class year), use profile field mapping instead of relying solely on form responses. This ensures tags are on profiles where they can be used for both rulesets AND cycle applicability.
Mistake 4: Forgetting to Assign Ruleset to Cycle
Symptom: You created a ruleset but auto-assignment doesn't use it.
Fix: Navigate to your cycle settings and verify the ruleset is assigned. An unassigned ruleset won't affect any assignments.
Mistake 5: Suite-Level Gender Rules Not Working
Symptom: Opposite genders are selecting rooms in the same suite despite gender matching rules.
Fix: Create room/inventory rules that prevent gender mismatches at the suite level. Tag suites with gender designations and create hard rules: "Gender Identity: Male" must be assigned to suites with "Male Suite" tag.
What's Next
You've completed all four PLS-4 modules! You now know how to create tags, apply them, control access with applicability logic, and build rulesets for automated matching.
Next steps:
Practice: Complete PLS-4 Self-Guided Practice Exercises
Build YOUR tags and rulesets: Use your sandbox to create your institution's real tag structure and matching rules
Move to PLS-5: Building Forms for Applications & Roommate Matching - Learn how to create forms that automatically assign the tags you just built