By Megan McGuinness, Staff Writer
With winter break rapidly approaching, there is lots of important information that resident students should be familiar with and many upcoming dates that students should have marked on their calendars.
First up, the residence halls are officially closing on Friday, December 17 at 9 p.m. for winter break. All undergraduate resident students are expected to be out of their halls by then so that the resident advisors are able to do room checks in a timely manner and head home to their families on Saturday afternoon.
If any undergraduate student needs to stay late for a valid reason, they can submit a late departure request by sending an email stating their reason to [email protected]. Requests must be submitted by Friday, December 17, 2021 at noon, after which a response will be sent. If a student is confirmed for a late departure, they must leave campus by Saturday, December 18 at 10:00am.
This year, residence life will not be taking keys, but each student should be sure to “sign out” by signing and dating the slip on their front door once they leave for break. This helps the resident advisors know which rooms are empty and which ones are still occupied as they go around conducting room checks on Friday and Saturday.
In preparation for closing, all resident students should unplug everything in their dorms/apartments, move their belongings off of the ground and away from vents, shut their windows, keep their heat set to low, and dispose of any perishable food items. In addition, it is the responsibility of the last person who departs to leave their residence space clean. Thus, students should pair with their roommates (if applicable) ahead of time to ensure that the cleaning gets done and is not all left to one person.
“We really appreciate when students follow the closing procedures by leaving their rooms clean and signing out when they leave campus,” said Gateway Resident Advisor, Mackenzie Svenson. “It helps the whole closing process run smoothly.”
Alternatively, the Office of Residence Life understands that some undergraduate students may need to stay on campus over winter break for one of various reasons. Thus, residence life is once again offering eligible undergraduate students the chance to stay in their current on-campus housing assignments over break for a weekly rate of $200. Those living in graduate housing are able to stay on campus over winter break at no additional charge.
Applications can be found in the THD and must be filled out by Thursday, December 16, 2021 at 4:00pm. It is very important that those wishing to stay fill out this form, because if a student does not fill it out and is caught on campus they will be charged the full rate for the entirety of holiday break, regardless of how long they were planning to stay on campus.
It is also important to note that no guests are allowed in winter break housing, except for those students who are registered for winter break housing themselves. In addition, although no resident advisors will be on duty over break, public safety will still be patrolling campus and all University policies will remain in effect.
For an undergraduate student to be eligible to stay, they must be continuing for the Spring 2022 semester and must satisfy one of the following: they must be an international student, they must be enrolled in winter classes at Western New England University, they must be an athlete whose team is required to stay on campus for break, or they must have a full-time job either on or off-campus (in the vicinity of campus) during break. Students who do not meet these criteria but still wish to live on campus over break can submit their request in writing, using the THD application.
Regarding returning to campus, the residence halls will reopen to all undergraduate students on Sunday, January 23, 2022 at 9:00am for the spring semester. New/transfer students move in on Thursday, January 20, 2022 and have orientation that Friday. Concerning the pandemic situation, there are currently no plans in place for campuswide covid testing upon resident students’ return to campus. However, this decision is fluid and residence life will make changes accordingly as they so deem fit.
“Health services will be updating us on covid policies over break, but the spring ‘return policies’ will likely be similar to the move in policies,” said Ryan Begin, the Assistant Director of Residence Life.
We’re hopeful that the spring semester “move in” runs as smoothly as the fall and hope that everyone has a nice winter break!
