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I would like to thank you for your continued support of our residence hall students. As we are quickly approaching the end of the academic year, I wanted to share with you the following information about residence hall closing for the spring semester as it applies to your student.
The Residence Halls will officially close for the spring semester at 5:00 pm on Friday, May 12, 2017. All residence halls will be closed at that time and students will no longer have access to the residential buildings. If their last final is before Friday, May 12th, we ask that they check out of their residence hall on the day of their last final. If a student requires additional time (up until 12 noon on Saturday, May 13) to vacate their residence hall due to class or extenuating circumstances, a request should be submitted in writing to their Residence Hall director. Requests to stay late must have been received by Friday, May 5th at 4:30 p.m.
If you have any questions regarding the spring semester closing process, please do not hesitate to contact the Office of Residence Life at (203) 392-5870.
As your students prepare to leave, if they find that they have unwanted, gently used items, please suggest they donate them to the “Give and Go” program or to the Mobile Food pantry. Blue Goodwill bins (for clothing, small electronics/appliances, rugs, bedding, books, dishware, and more) and cardboard boxes (for non-perishable food items) will be in Residence Hall lobbies through the end of the semester.
The following is a suggested checklist to help your student move out and transport belongings safely and inexpensively:
Do load up on packing tape, labels or markers and newspaper to wrap small breakables. Check grocery stores for extra boxes they give away. Also, encourage your student to use every duffel bag, backpack, storage bin and grocery sack they have to store and move belongings. There are enough costs associated with moving such as gas, storage and cleaning; buying boxes does not need to be one of them.
When your student is moving everything back home from campus housing, items can disappear. Especially when everyone in the hall is boxing up their belongings, it’s easy to accidentally swap a box with a roommate or mistakenly drop small electronics into the clothes box, losing them until they are unpacked in the fall. Advise your student to label every box and write a brief inventory list on the inside flap so that finding their possessions will be simplified.
Resident students have a cleaning checklist that must be followed. While it might seem easier for you to clean up the room while your student packs and moves their things into the car, deny the urge! Students gain a better appreciation for the value of taking care of their living space if they have to clean up their own spaces for the room inspection.
Have a wonderful summer and we look forward to welcoming our students back for the fall 2017 semester.