Residence Hall Reminders for Holiday Breaks
By: Housing and Residence Life
Holiday breaks are coming! As your students prepare to travel safely to and from campus, Housing and Residence Life would like to share some details with you about the opening and closing of our buildings.
Your students will receive information from Housing and Residence Life with detailed instructions on both Thanksgiving break and leaving for Christmas break, including instructions on how to leave their thermostat in their room, how to arrange furniture while they are away and disposing of perishable items from their refrigerators.
We do not close our buildings at all during Thanksgiving Break, and we have at least one staff member around, per block, to address any concerns or needs that students may have. If students are planning on staying in the residence halls during this break for any length of time while the university is closed, we ask that students share that information with their Resident Assistant (RA), so that we have an accurate roster of which students are still on campus, in case of emergency.
As the semester winds down and we head into Christmas Break, we do close all of our buildings where freshman and sophomore year students (lower division) live, including those residing in apartment-style buildings. On Saturday, December 16, card access to these buildings will turn off at 10 a.m. We ask that students who need to stay later than December 16 before departing for the holiday season, submit a late departure form, which we will make available to students around the Thanksgiving holiday and will be published on the Housing & Residence Life page of the university’s website. We understand that life (and weather) happens, so if for some reason travel becomes difficult, have your student connect with their Residence Director or swing by our office in Crosby 201 to discuss options to extend their stay until they can safely begin their journey home.
Any juniors and seniors are invited to stay in their apartments on campus for any or all of the break, but again, we ask that they inform their RA or RD of their plans.
When we prepare to start back up for spring semester, our residence halls will open on Sunday, January 14 at 10 a.m. and student ID cards will automatically start working to let them into their buildings at that time. However, classes do not start until Wednesday, so your student may return any time after Sunday, January 14 at 10 a.m. We also ask students who need to return before this time for any official reason, like athletes, to fill out an early arrival form, which will also be distributed to students around the Thanksgiving holiday.
The last day that students can apply for room changes for this semester is December 1. Students who apply for a room change this semester will need to be completely moved into their new space before they leave for the holidays.
If students do not have a home to go to during the break, whether they are international students, are victims of one of the many natural disasters our world experienced this year or for any other reason, please have them stop by our office to have special accommodations made for them to stay with us. We want to make sure every student has somewhere warm to be during this season.
Our office is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., except for the following days: Thursday, November 23 and Friday, November 24 for Thanksgiving; Friday, December 22 and Monday, December 25 for Christmas; and Friday, December 29 and Monday, January 1, 2018 for New Year’s. These office hours are subject to change, as authorized by the university administration.