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Housing allows students to stay over holiday breaks

Before this semester, VSU’s Housing Department would not allow students to stay in their dorms over breaks other than the students in Centennial Hall. This semester however, Housing is allowing students to stay during winter and spring break. Changes have also been made to how food will be provided to accommodate those who decide to stay on campus over these breaks.

The students who decide to stay may see an increased amount of maintenance and facility staff because the holiday seasons are when they do most of the repairs. A few RAs and other staff members will also be available along with some faculty and staff being in the offices on the days that the university is open.

Dining will be available to students with the exception of specific dates that they will not be open.

“There will be some kind of eating option available for students to eat,” Dr. Zduy Chu, director of Housing and Residence Life, said. “It’s a flexed schedule, so they won’t be open all the time or closed all the time. There will always be something available for residents if they want to get out and enjoy dining with us.”

This decision benefits the students who have no place or means to go during the holidays such as international students and students who live far away.

“For those students that either couldn’t or didn’t want to go back home for the breaks, we were putting them out,” Dr. Chu said. “For some other individuals, this is kind of their home for the year, and I think that for us we wanted to treat it as such. You wouldn’t necessarily have to leave your home or permanent address for any kind of breaks. If you wanted you could stay there, and I think that we took that mentality and thought ‘Well, the students are paying for it already, it isn’t something that we aren’t going to add on, and we’re not going to do an additional fee that has them pay if they want to stay here,’ which I think we did in the past, but aren’t going to do now.”

Housing wanted to keep the students in mind when deciding.

“Just offering the service to our students is something that I think would be a really kind gesture, but also letting them know that we have them in mind,” Dr. Chu said. “We’ll continue to have staffing throughout the entire break so that if any comes up and they might need any assistance, then they can reach out to us.”

Students seem to agree with the housing’s decision.

“The school changing its policy is a good thing,” Kaiya Samuel, a freshman communication art major, said. “It gives people a choice because you never know what someone is going through. I like the idea of being able to stay on campus because it is our home, and sometimes it’s the only one we have.”

“I think that it is a good thing because if kids don’t want to go home, they don’t have to,” Ismael Ruttell, a freshman chemistry major, said. “I also think that it makes it easier on students who don’t have transportation to get home, and they don’t have to go through the trouble of finding a way to get home. It provides more options for them.”

Written by Andrew Farace, Staff Writer. Image courtesy of Hughies.

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