Residential Living Update: COVID-19

sent to all residential students March 13, 2020

Good afternoon, 

At this time, you have likely seen President Yager's email about the University moving to online and virtual instruction as of March 23. For our residential students, there are important updates we wanted to share. 

Residents do not need to move all items out of their residence halls. Think of this like winter break, an extended time away from campus, and we want to make sure you have what you need. Students should only be moving out priority items: medications, prescriptions, emotional support animals or fish, technology, textbooks, supplies for projects, other valuables).

Residential students who are currently out of town should not plan to return to campus. If you have priority items that you need between now and mid-April, please email reslife@uarts.edu to let us know what you need, where we can find it, the address it should be shipped to, and the best phone number to contact you. Our staff will work in partnership with Distribution Services to ship these priority items home. 

Residential students who plan to return to campus to collect priority items must notify Residence Life via email at reslife@uarts.edu and should make plans to collect these items by March 22. Again, residents do not need to move all items out of the residence hall. Please do not return to campus to pick up any items if you are experiencing symptoms of a flu-like illness (cough, fever, etc.). If you do return to your hall, you will find that the building is open, Public Safety is present, and that sign in procedures are the same as during the academic year.  

Residential students who have remained on campus for Spring Break should be making plans to return home. Students who have extenuating circumstances, international students or students who experience housing insecurity should contact reslife@uarts.edu. 

Again, we want to remind residents to only move out the priority items they need between now and mid-April. While students are not in their residence halls the HVAC, water, refrigeration will all remain on. Facilities staff, residence life staff, and public safety will conduct regular rounds of the building. 

If you have any questions, please see the FAQ attached, visit our website, or contact our office at reslife@uarts.edu. Our staff will be working as quickly as possible to answer all questions. 

Thank you, 
Rhonda Fioresi
Director of Residence Life and Community Standards