For better or worse, many first-year students are paired by university housing officials before they come to MSU's residence halls.
But ASMSU is arguing that in some cases, it's for the worst, and will propose a system to match freshmen with similar characteristics.
MSU's undergraduate student government passed a bill about two weeks ago that suggested surveying residents about their sleep patterns, study habits, noisiness and drinking habits.
"I was sitting in my room and my roommate and I weren't getting along, and it hit me," said Aaron Sobel, a representative for the College of Business who created the bill. "I thought this would serve my problem."
Sobel said ASMSU would suggest survey questions to the Residence Halls Association, another student government, but that RHA would be ultimately responsible for the "grunt work" of creating questionnaires for incoming freshmen.
MSU's current system surveys incoming students about their preferences on smoking, substance use, quiet atmosphere and co-ed living.
He added at the Student Assembly meeting that the University of Michigan uses a system of profiling incoming freshman and a similar system "would help solve our problems." But when The State News contacted the University of Michigan's housing office, an official said it uses "absolutely nothing" to profile incoming freshmen.
ASMSU's bill suggested urging University Housing officials to adopt a "system of resident profiling," but Tom Koch, conference services manager for University Housing, said this type of profiling is difficult to implement at large universities.
"When dealing with a system which is one of, if not the, largest university housing systems, there are problems we run into that other smaller schools don't have," he said. "Size has a lot to do with it."
Koch said smaller universities can sometimes pair similar students without roommates entering their freshman year, but the process is more tedious and time-consuming with larger schools.
ASMSU Student Assembly Chairperson Andrew Schepers said he plans to discuss the bill with Sobel before he advocates University Housing officials adopt a system, but that he supports the bill's intentions.
"It's a good idea - we just need to figure out how to implement this before we go in and say, 'Do this project,'" he said.
Sobel said he has plans to meet with Schepers so the bill can be instituted for next fall's incoming freshman class.
