Travel costs keep some students at UNC over Thanksgiving break

Senior Elaina Giolando will spend a third Thanksgiving away from home.

Home is Buffalo, NY.

“It doesn’t make sense to spend $600 on plane tickets when Christmas break is just a few weeks away,” she said.

Giolando, who will use the break to write her senior thesis, is one of many out-of-state and international students who will remain in Chapel Hill due to financial constraints.

UNC Assistant Director of Housing Rick Bradley said about 20 students have requested housing over the break and many more have made plans to stay elsewhere.

Although the Out-of-State Student Association provides airport shuttles over Thanksgiving break, many international and out-of-state students find the price of traveling home for five days to be too much, said Ryan Morgan, who was president of the association for the 2009-2010 school year.

“These past two years, it seems like more people can’t go home, especially with how bad the economy has been,” said Morgan, who was relocated to Odum Village during Thanksgiving break his sophomore year.

All residence halls will close to students at 10 a.m. Wednesday and re-open Sunday at 9 a.m. Students will not be allowed to enter the dorms during these times.

“Residence halls don’t stay open because there are so few students who stay behind,” Bradley said. “We can’t keep them open because of safety reasons.”

Students who choose to remain on campus will stay in Ehringhaus Residence Hall or Odum Village Apartments. Students are charged $10 a day and must move their belongings to their temporary rooms, he said.

“For out-of-state students like me, it’s much more expensive to go home for such a short break,” said Morgan, who is originally from Alabama.

“It can get kind of sad being alone in Chapel Hill while everyone else is gone. I was lucky enough to have professors who stayed in town, so I had Thanksgiving dinner with them.”

Although the University provides housing for students during that time, dining halls, libraries and fitness centers all close for most of the break, leaving few options for students who remain behind.

Scott Myers, UNC director of food and vending, said students’ best option will be to stock up at Ram’s Head Market or Tar Heal Cafe before all locations close, or use their flex account to order delivery.

Michael Johnston, a senior chemistry major from Manitoba, Canada, has decided not to go home for the past three Thanksgivings and will remain in Chapel Hill for this one as well.

“The cost partly prevents me from going home, but the other part is that all of my friends are still in class,” he said.

“I wouldn’t really have much to go home to.”

Instead, Johnston, who now lives in Carrboro, said he plans to celebrate Thanksgiving with his friends and work on applications for graduate school.

Giolando said she misses her family, but she has grown accustomed to only going home about once a year.

“It’s a good time to get work done, but I think it’s sad that the OSSA doesn’t do anything for the students who stay behind on Thanksgiving,” she said. “If you’re an out-of-state student, you don’t really get to go home.”

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.