Students leave on-campus housing, adjust to moving back home

How campus housing changed in wake of COVID-19

In mid-March, UTD began asking students living on campus to start the move-out
process in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Now, those students say they
miss dorm life and are adjusting to moving back home.

Information technology and systems sophomore Eileen Sharmin moved out of
University Commons on March 22. She said the transition from dorm life to back
home has been rough. 

“I really liked living at the dorms, and of course having to move back
isn’t that great, but you have to do what you have to do. It was just really
cool to meet everyone when I was living in the residence hall. It’s sad it
ended like that, but we’ll make next year better,” Sharmin said. “Before we
even got off for spring break, we weren’t sure what (was) going on. But I was planning
on going back to the dorms until they said they were doing a refund.”

Prior to the pandemic’s spread within DFW, UTD officials said that
housing would be open until the end of the semester. On March 18, University
Housing released moving instructions for students living in University Commons
and Canyon Creek Heights, stating they would need to leave by March 29 unless
they had no suitable alternative. University Village residents were allowed to
stay until May 11.

Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs Matthew Grief is  one of the people overseeing move-out. He said
that there were 1,994 and 711 students living in University Commons and Canyon
Creek Heights, respectively, at the beginning of this semester. Now, Grief
said, University Commons has 400 students while Canyon Creek Heights has 200
and those figures are changing daily.

 “(University Commons and Canyon
Creek Heights) were chosen based on the close proximity of how those students
lived together in a close environment, common entry points to buildings, and
common air circulation,” Grief said. “University Village is single-unit apartments
without those features, so it did not get the same treatment. Students had to
leave the two facilities unless there were extenuating circumstances.”

On March 19, students were sent an exception form to fill out if they
could not move out of University Commons or Canyon Creek Heights by the
required date, which was useful for the 554 international students in UTD
housing this semester or those who had nowhere else to go. Any other requests
are reviewed on a case-by-case basis, Grief said.

“(For) any student who did not renew their housing for fall 2020, we are
recommending they immediately look for housing options that are off-campus,”
Grief said. “Our assumption is many of these students would have already
obtained or begun looking for housing for the summer and fall. We will allow
any student who has renewed a place in University Village or Canyon Creek
Heights to remain on campus throughout the summer..”

On March 31, Texas governor Greg Abbott signed an executive order urging
citizens to comply with social distancing guidelines and only leave home for
essential activities such as trips to the grocery store. The order is in effect
from April 2 to April 30.

Cognitive science sophomore Suraya Musa moved out March 25. She said she
understands the need for the move but misses the people she lived with in University
Commons.

“I lived there for two months, but I feel like I was becoming a better
person,” Musa said. “I feel super unproductive at home. At UTD, I would study
in the library and relax when I got to my dorm. I got my work done on time.
Now, I feel like my school life and my personal life have collided, and I’m
personally having some difficulties adjusting. I’m also not sure how the refund
works or when I’m going to get it, so I’m trying to figure that out.”

The daily rate for refund policies differ by student housing facility
and depend on when a student moved out, Grief said. The refund will be processed
through the Bursar’s Office and will be applied to any outstanding fees before
the remaining balance is released to the student.

“For students in University Village, if they choose to move out between
now and the end of the semester, (their refund is)  going to be based on the date they moved out
as well, but the daily rates between facilities differ due to factors like … having
different move-out deadlines,” Grief said.

On March 27, University Housing released amended housing instructions
that required students to sign up for a check-out time to limit the number of
students coming in contact with each other.

“It has been a very smooth check-out process for our students where we
limited contact and practiced safe social distancing during the process with
limited issues,” Grief said. “We allowed students to use moving bins, but we
were also cleaning them after every use. We limited access to one student and
three family members to help out, so we’re limiting the number of people in the
facilities. Now, we’ve actually reduced access to the facilities to only those
who are given an exception to stay. Students who still have stuff in their room
but are not able to come back, we’ll give you access once you sign up for a
time to come back.”

 Students living in Northside
Apartments who want to move home face a dilemma of paying rent after moving out
or losing their housing. Information technology and systems junior Nayanika
Papineni said she left March 15 but is still paying rent for April.

“I have two roommates I live with at Northside, and we have a lease
until August. We renewed it for next year,” Papineni said. “If we don’t pay
rent, there’s no guarantee we will get another apartment next year.”

As a response to the situation, Northside has pushed rent payment from
April 1 to April 15 and temporarily suspended late fees until that date. If
students stop paying rent, they will be in violation of their lease agreement
and can be evicted.

In August, a new batch of freshmen will enter the
campus. If online classes continue, the need for student housing may decrease.

“Our first goal was to get everyone out. We’re treating fall as a normal semester. We’re still making offers to residents for apartments,” Grief said. “If something does change, we will make adjustments, but we won’t know that until a few more months.”