By Lucas Vacco
Staff Writer
The Covid-19 vaccine mandate for all students at the College is allowing many more students to reside on campus this semester than in the previous academic year. Since residence halls will be almost fully occupied this semester, the College implemented precautions for students while moving in.
To make the move-in for fall 2021 smooth and safe, Residential Education and Housing implemented drop-and-go move-in appointments. Between Aug. 21 and 25, dorming students scheduled 3-hour move-in appointments to drop off their possessions and return home. First year and sophomore students returned to campus as early as 2 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 26 to begin their Welcome Week activities.
The College has given an alternative option for students to move in and reside on campus the same day, but with a limited number of move-in appointments.
Sophomore urban elementary education and African American studies major Ashauna Francis said that the drop-and-go move-ins were actually very convenient since she was able to observe how big her room was.
“It would have been helpful to get a physical walk-through of the room before the drop-and-go move-in appointment, but three hours was a decent amount of time,” Francis said.
Sophomore biology major Jessica Damanski also found the drop-and-go move-ins to be convenient and effective since it allowed her to feel safe while moving in.
“I like that I was able to assess the room and then go to the store and buy extra storage bins, etc. that I could bring back later,” Damanski said. However, she noted that she did not have enough time to completely move in her belongings.
Housing Business Manager Raymond Gonzalez said the process of the drop-and-go move-ins was successful due to planning ahead of time.
“One of the goals of this process was to allow for a less dense move-in environment and to provide an additional level of safety to the move-in process. We were able to make adjustments based on what we learned in January but overall, it went as planned,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said the drop-and-go process was continued this semester because of the state of the pandemic. Effective Aug. 16, the College implemented a mandatory mask policy for indoor areas regardless of vaccination status because of rising concern of the Delta variant of the virus.
“We decided to continue to utilize a drop-and-go process this semester,” Gonzales said, “similar to what we did in January because we are still in a pandemic, and we are following the recommendations provided by the [CDC] and the Department of Education regarding de-densifying these types of events.”
