One of the most anticipated parts of winter break for students is the opportunity to return home from campus and celebrate the holidays with their family and friends. However, for some students, it can be a struggle to figure out where to spend the four-week stretch.
For some students who live in the dorms, staying on campus over break was an easy choice, due to conflicting work schedules that required them to stay on campus. For others, staying on campus was the only option after living arrangements at home had changed.
“My sister took over my room when I left, and she said I’m not allowed to stay in her room anymore,” Shannon O’Connell, a first-year majoring in environmental studies, who stayed in Unthank Hall over winter break, said. “I’d have to be sleeping on a couch for a whole month, and I don’t know if that’s sustainable or not.”
Campus effectively shut down during December 2022, with very limited amenities for students to access.
“It was like a ghost town. Nothing’s open. No one’s there,” O’Connell said. The dining halls were shut, as well as the University Health Center and other campus resources. This caused some trouble for students who stayed, not having the same facilities that they had grown accustomed to during the first term.
“I did get locked out of my room once and all the service centers were closed so I had to wander around for two hours until I could figure out how to get back in,” Daniel Porter, a first-year majoring in data science, living in Hamilton Hall, said. Porter was able to find an RA to be let back in.
Thankfully for these students, the campus-wide closure didn’t come as much of a surprise. The University was clear in its messaging to students about what the expectations would be if one were to stay in the residence halls over winter break.
“They were pretty thorough about it,” O’Connell said. “They made [it] very clear that we won’t have meal points and that nothing will be open.”
Despite the limited access to resources, staying in Eugene through the month of December had its benefits for the students who remained. Several students took advantage of the time without classes to focus on a job. For Porter, who works as a manager for the Ducks’ basketball team, his choice to stay on campus allowed him to build a sense of community.
“It was a good experience to bond with all my friends and the basketball team since we’re all in the same boat with nobody else around,” he said.
Some students found that it was challenging to get off campus during the fall term. The time on campus during winter break allowed students a new opportunity to explore more of the area surrounding campus. “I just had a lot more free time, and I drove around quite a bit. I really hadn’t gone outside of campus before that, so it was kind of nice,” Porter said. Between exploring different hikes around Eugene and even going out to the coast, there was much to be done in the weeks off of school.
The greatest benefit of staying on campus over the break may have been a newfound opportunity for students to experience peace and quiet without the rest of the student body. It isn’t often that the resident halls aren’t flooded with students.
“I really like the silence and the privacy and having a whole room to myself, how quiet it was,” O’Connell said. “It was nice to kind of get space again, to learn more about who I am as a person and taking time to work on myself.”
