Students living in the residence halls now have the option to move out for the remainder of spring term, since the University of Oregon moved to all-online classes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the residence halls and limited dining will remain open to “students who feel it is necessary for their welfare,” those who decide to cancel their spring term housing contract are now able to do so, according to University Housing.
Students who wish to return home or live off-campus for the remainder of spring term must submit their Spring Term Plans form, found on the My Housing account. Here, students are able to indicate if they will be staying or canceling their spring term housing in its entirety.
Students canceling their spring-term housing have until April 20th to move out of their rooms in order to receive full credit to their student account for their already-paid spring-term housing fees.
Since Oregon is under a stay-at-home order, “Officials are allowing residence hall students to return for one day to collect their belongings from their residence hall room. Students will need to notify University Housing through the Spring Term Plans Form on their My Housing account of their move-out date. Students will be expected to follow social distancing guidelines,” according to UO’s COVID-19 website.
The university is also working on solutions for those who cannot return to Eugene to collect their belongings and checkout in person. Students who select this option in their Spring Term Housing plan will receive a direct email with instructions on how to move out.
“[University] Housing is working to make arrangements for packing, shipping or donating, whatever someone decides they want to do,” Kris Winter, the associate vice president for the Division of Student Life and Dean of Students, said during UO’s virtual Town Hall.
“We’ll work with them to make arrangements to get belongings back to students,” Winter said. “We want everyone to make sure they’re safe first and we will figure out belongings second.”
Ellie Johnson, a first-year student at the UO, reflected on her experience moving out of Global Scholars Hall for spring term.
“None of us were expecting this,” Johnson said. “I’m lucky enough though, I live in Beaverton [Oregon], so it was easy for me to get in. But my roommate is from Indiana and so I had to pack up a bunch of her stuff and throw stuff away.”
Johnson said it was hard with the limited instructions given by the university, but recommends having strong communication with roommates to ease the process. Johnson also reminded students to be mindful of the janitorial staff when moving out.
“If you leave the rooms really gross, we’re just making it harder for people that are underpaid, and it’s during a pandemic. We got to take as much care of them as we can because they’re all awesome people,” Johnson said.
For those moving back home, Johnson recommends a little redecorating to cope with the change.
“For a lot of us, it’s like our high school, middle school, elementary school bedroom you know, so redo it a little bit to just make it feel like a better temporary place than like you just came home to your high school room and your high school hometown.”
Although the process of moving out of the residence halls can be overwhelming and stressful, students like Quaye Negro have managed to keep a positive mentality during times of such uncertainty.
“I think it’s time to really push people to be like, oh, I actually care about this thing and not that thing, it’s a thing and it’s replaceable,” Negro said. “At this point in time, the only thing that I really have that matters right now is my health and the health of my family.”
