Moving out months early presents challenges for on-campus students

Students who lived on campus during the 2019-20 school year now have to schedule their move-out dates a couple of months early. 

An email sent on March 17 by Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz asked all students living on-campus to move out of their residence halls, unless granted an exception to stay. UNC residence halls and Granville Towers will be closed for the rest of the academic year due to the nationwide spread of COVID-19, he said in the email. 

The closure of on-campus housing for the rest of the semester has left students scheduling their move-outs earlier than expected. For those who live far from the University or out of the state, this presents additional challenges. 

Students currently living off campus should sign up for a two-hour appointment to move all belongings out of their residences, according to an email sent by Carolina Housing to residents last week. The appointments to move out will take place from March 22 to April 1 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Carolina Housing said in a follow-up email that students who are unable to retrieve their belongings during those dates or do not wish to return to campus before April 1 — or March 24, for Parker Hall — can send an email to either Carolina Housing or Granville Towers, depending on where they live. 

After April 1, students will not have access to their rooms without a previously arranged appointment, the email said.

Kaitlin Rohr, a first-year pre-nursing major, lived in Granville Towers this year. She said she has already taken some of her belongings back home, but scheduled a two-hour appointment online to officially move out Wednesday.

Other students have already moved out.

Isabella St.Onge, a junior English and dramatic arts major, said she moved out the day after receiving the email from the University about residence halls closing.

Moving out of dorms on short notice can be harder for out-of-state students, Gabe Juedemann, a first-year economics major, said. He is from Maryland and said making plans to spend the night in Chapel Hill is harder with many hotels taking precautions against the spread of COVID-19.

“Preparing to drive down there is not something I could just do in one day,” Juedemann said. “I had to prepare to spend the night.”

The checkout process — in which students place their keys in envelopes rather than hand them to housing staff — is a convenient and safer way to check out, St.Onge said. 

Many students — including St.Onge, Juedemann and Rohr — said they are disappointed that their time on campus this year had to be cut short. 

“I think, personally, it’s really sad because freshman year is such a unique time in college, absorbing all the opportunity and change,” Rohr said. 

But doing what is necessary to stop the potential spread of COVID-19 among the University community is more important than having a typical end to the year, Rohr said. 

“Knowing that it keeps us safe overshadows the sadness,” she said.

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