LIFE ON DORM

life on dorm during covid

By Justin Bendall, Director of Residential Life and School Counseling

Even though we couldn’t go off-campus, there were different activities on the weekends that were fun. Even with everything going on with COVID, it felt normal.”

-Diana H. ’22

The Residential Life program adapted to COVID by making necessary changes to ensure that student safety was paramount in all facets. Students were required to quarantine when returning to campus after breaks with limited interaction with one another for the first week, including having meals delivered to dorm. Initially, masks were mandatory, visiting other students’ dorm rooms was not permitted, and bathroom times were staggered; these quarantine periods took place after every major break in the academic calendar.

Once we emerged from quarantine, life around campus began to look more normal, with meals taking place in the dining hall. For mealtimes, students arrived at the dining hall after being dismissed from dorm via a “tee time,” which indicated—down to the minute—when to head out to ensure social distancing while getting food. Administrators on Duty (AOD) and other staff monitored the lines reminding students to stay masked or to spread apart, all while pouring glasses of water and handing them out to limit community touching of items such as water pitchers or utensils. Table numbers were reduced from 8 to 6 students per table with plastic shields segmenting off each space vertically and horizontally from other students; table assignments were in place all year and based on existing dorm cohorts.

Study halls were moved into the afternoons as a result of having no inter-scholastic athletic games, and we were able to provide activity time for students during weekday evenings in addition to the regular weekend times. Following long breaks, students were in cohorts for activities until the boarding community was determined to be a family unit. At that point, students were allowed to choose which activities they wanted to participate in. When the weather was nice, most activities took place outdoors, and students remained masked at all times. When inside, social distancing was stressed, and we limited capacities in certain locations to help mitigate close interactions. While we eliminated store trips for the entirety of the year, students were encouraged to place online orders for items they needed. Proctors helped deliver packages to dorms each day.

While the year was challenging in many ways, the Residential Life program maintained enough normalcy that those students who lived on campus had a great year. In fact, many who were multi-year students commented that it was their favorite year. We are looking forward to having an even better one in 2021-2022!