By Kiersten Hacker

After the difficult college decision process, freshmen students at UMD were faced with another tough decision: whether to move on campus or stay at home. With COVID-19 restrictions and the majority of classes being held online, students assessed their options of learning from home or joining the campus community to get as close to the “traditional” college experience they could get during a global pandemic.

For freshman history major Marisa Silverman, dorm room shopping was underway until August when other colleges and universities had sent some students home due to coronavirus cases or students’ failure to comply with pandemic guidelines. Silverman decided to cancel her housing agreement not only because her classes would be fully online, but also because students would not be receiving a refund in the case that they are sent home, according to a 2020-2021 on-campus housing addendum. 

“It was not an insignificant amount of cash to just throw away and my parents were also worried about me being alone,” Silverman said.

UMD announced that all students living in residence halls would not have roommates due to reduced occupancy and, coupled with the housing addendum, many freshmen were wary of moving on campus. Students were able to cancel their housing without a penalty by certain dates in July and August and were then able to join a waitlist for spring housing. 

“Right away I signed up for the spring housing waitlist because I was hoping that things would be a little bit more back to normal by the spring which, at this point, it isn’t looking a whole lot better in terms of the number of cases,” freshman journalism major Shifra Dayak said.

Dayak said she has mixed feelings about moving on campus with a fully online spring schedule and limited rooms available in her living learning program. But if the opportunity to be on campus presented itself, she would take it.

After hearing experiences from other students who were making the best of the college life while still following pandemic guidelines, Silverman said her hopes to move on campus are even greater. But, it is now a waiting game for students who joined the waitlist. The Department of Resident Life has confirmed housing for some students but, with rooms filling up, everyone else will be notified as cancellations come in.   

“All the language is really wishy washy and it doesn’t really mean anything. And I know it’s just because they don’t know anything any more than I know anything,” Silverman said. 

Sobechi Nwankwo, a freshman in the letters and sciences program, was on the waitlist and has received confirmation that she will receive housing, but she said that information is still lacking for her as well. 

“I wish there was more information that existed. I’ve never seen so much wishy washy information,” Nwankwo said. “Stick to a topic and one opinion, it’s frustrating and the fact that I’m asking students for information like they know is also kind of amusing.”

For those who do receive housing, they may be left to pack and prepare in a hurry, should information be sent late. And for freshmen at home, though circumstances are still uncertain, students may be left scrambling for other housing options if they are notified soon enough that there will not be any available housing.

Dayak said she would like more transparency from the Department of Resident Life and is worried that she will not receive sufficient information about whether she is able to obtain housing or not.

“I just kind of wish they were more clear about how many students can expect to get housing and how many students have to make plans to keep staying home or find other housing,” Dayak said. “I want to know if there’s definitely not going to be enough space and I have to just like mentally prepare myself to stay, or if I probably will end up getting in, I have to prepare to move out of my house.”

The latest update students received was an interest form they had to complete by Dec. 11. The form was located on the StarRez portal and it asked students to confirm if they would still like to remain on the waitlist or if they would like to cancel their spring housing application.

Both Dayak and Silverman confirmed their interest in remaining on the waitlist, but Dayak said the email containing the interest form did not offer much direction. After dealing with uncertainty related to classes and extracurriculars, remote freshmen students are being forced to wait and see, continuing to navigate housing uncertainty to the best of their ability.

“I would prefer they would tell me. If they could just tell me and be like ‘Yeah, you’re not getting housing’ because I would like to not be informed I’m getting housing a week before [the spring semester starts],” Silverman said. “The waiting is almost worse than them telling me ‘Yeah, this isn’t going to happen.”

Featured photo courtesy of the Department of Resident Life.