Hello Student,
As we prepare to welcome you to campus this fall for your on-campus residential experience, a cross-campus team of dedicated staff and faculty is making plans for your move into your residence hall. Your health, safety and well-being are our top priorities. We are actively monitoring and continually adapting our planning efforts as this public health situation evolves.
We hope that you are eager to start making your plans. We are looking forward to meeting you. This is the first of many communications you will receive from us in the next several weeks that will help prepare you for your move into campus housing and the start of your GW student experience.
Your first step is to choose a move-in date and time. For newly admitted students in the Class of 2024, Transfer Students, and Exchange Students, like you, the first available day you can choose to start moving in is August 19. The last day to move into your on-campus housing assignment is Tuesday, August 25. As a reminder, virtual convocation will be held August 26 and classes begin on August 31.
For your awareness, there is a scheduled March on Washington on Friday, August 28, with additional events through the weekend. Crowds similar in size to a Presidential Inauguration, Women’s March or Million Man March are expected to bring road closures and traffic congestion to the downtown area near our Foggy Bottom campus. We ask that you keep this in mind in order to limit potential delays regarding your arrival.
Scheduling Your Move-In Day
We realize that you and your family are eager to start solidifying travel arrangements for the next academic year. Keeping social distancing top of mind, we are implementing several guidelines and procedures during our fall move-in period.
In order to move-in to your residence hall, you must schedule a date and time for your move. We will be allowing move-ins seven days a week in 3-hour time blocks at 8 am, 11 am, 2 pm and 5 pm. As we follow public health measures and plan ahead for the daily scheduled arrivals, we are not able to accommodate walk-ups or requests to move-into your room outside of the established dates and times indicated.
We are scheduling time blocks to reduce the volume of comings and goings across campus. Move-in procedures will provide for one student/family use of an elevator at a time, less congestion at the entrance and exit and less crowded hallways. As you schedule your time you will notice that we are only allowing up to 50 students/families per hall (depending on its size) a day and we will be limiting the number of students moving onto each floor, with only two per floor per time block.
Additionally, we ask that you do not schedule your move-in for the same time block as your roommate/s. While roommates can move-in the same day, the times will need to be in separate blocks. Lastly, in order to reduce the volume of people moving in and out of the building, the number of friends and/or family members helping you move is limited to no more than two per student.
Starting tomorrow, we will launch the Fall 2020 Move-In Registration System in phases by building. At the designated time noted below, you will receive an email from this account (living@gwu.edu) with a dedicated link that will open the registration system for your assigned building.
- Friday, July 10 at 10 am (EST): Early arrival students including, but not limited to, resident advisors, fall athletes, orientation leaders and the student EMeRG team.
- Monday, July 13 at 10 am (EST): Mount Vernon Campus including Cole, Clark, Hensley, Somers and West Halls. Fraternity and Sorority Housing, including small townhouses. One Washington Circle, The Aston and FSK Hall.
- Tuesday, July 14 at 10 am (EST): District House, Potomac House and JBKO, Fulbright, Madison, Munson, Lafayette and Mitchell Halls.
- Wednesday, July 15 at 10 am (EST): 1959 E Street, 2109 F Street, International House, and Shenkman, South, Dakota, Guthridge and Amsterdam Halls.
Allowing the registration system to open by building groups will help ease congestion and not override the system with all of our residents attempting to schedule at the same time. Even with the phased release, we anticipate there to be many students eager to make their choice right away. If you attempt to access the system and it is full, you will be placed in the virtual waiting room, in the order you arrived, until it is your turn to choose your date and time. The system cap is intended to help avoid timeouts and maximize your ability to confirm your desired date and time. Please be aware, it is likely that the weekend options will fill up fast, so have several choices in mind when you enter the system. While adjustments can be made after the initial log-in, the scheduling system will close at 4 pm (EST) on Friday, August 7. After that, no change requests will be granted.
We hope this early notification provides you with an opportunity to discuss potential dates and times with the up to two friends or family members who will be helping with your move-in.
Please Note: If you do not sign up for a time-slot, your preferred time slot might fill up and you will need to select another day. Failure to sign up for a date and time during the outlined move-in period, may result in your move-in being delayed until the week of Aug. 31.
More Updates for the Upcoming Year
Fall Planning
As the university prepares for in-person instruction and a residential academic experience this fall, we are working on a very detailed campus operations plan, in collaboration with leading public health experts, that is currently under development. We will be sharing those details with you as soon as possible.
Just a note about our planning for on-campus housing: We are reducing the number of beds in residential spaces by eliminating bunked beds in all units, limiting room occupancy and configuring furniture to allow six feet of distance between beds. We also will limit or suspend access to lounges and communal gathering spaces and restrict residence hall access to residents and essential personnel only. More to come soon.
Housing Rate Adjustment
As we have previously announced, after Thanksgiving break, classes for most students will move to remote instruction until the end of the semester. Housing rates for the fall semester have been reduced to account for the post-Thanksgiving break remote instruction time period. Updated housing rate information was included in the preview E-bill you received last week.
Housing and Licensing Agreement
We have made some modifications to the Housing and Licensing Agreement that you acknowledged when you applied for housing. To provide for the health and safety of our community, these modifications align with new policies and guidance related to the university’s ongoing Coronavirus response including:
- All residents are expected to follow public health requirements including quarantine and isolation directives by the university.
- No guests will be allowed in your room. This includes no daytime or overnight guests, even if they are a classmate from another residence hall or another floor in your building. The exception is during your move-in when up to 2 family members or friends may assist with your move. This policy may be adjusted over time.
- Students are responsible for the cleanliness of their room, including providing their own CDC/EPA approved disinfectants. If the university determines that the level of cleanliness is unsanitary, the university will clean the room and residents of the room will be responsible for costs associated with the cleaning and may face student conduct sanctions.
In addition, flexibility has been incorporated into the move-out requirements and you will notice that the term of the license has been removed from the updated agreement. Dates and time frames for occupancy in the residence halls will now be maintained on the housing website.
Your Official GW Identification Card
A GWorld card is your official photo ID card at GW. All members of the GW community are issued a GWorld card. Your card serves as your identification, holds your meal plan and other cash accounts and, if you are taking in-person classes or will be living on campus, allows you to access to ‘tap into’ buildings on our Foggy Bottom, Mount Vernon or Virginia Science & Technology campuses such as your residence hall, academic buildings, and the library. Be on the lookout for an email directly from gworld@gwu.edu that will provide instructions on how to submit and upload your photo in order for us to create your GWorld photo ID before you arrive on campus and options for how to pick-up your GWorld card.
Undecided About Fall?
We realize that you may still be wrestling with the decision about whether to come to campus for an in-person, residential academic experience or staying home and continuing online remote learning. We want you to take the time that you need to make the decision that is best for you and that is most comfortable for you and your family. If you will be attending courses remotely in the fall and not returning to campus, we ask that you submit your housing assignment cancelation request via the Campus Living e-Services Portal and select the distance learning option from the menu to cancel your fall and spring housing assignment (and meal plans). We ask that you let us know by Monday, July 27 if you choose to cancel your academic year housing.
You likely have more questions as you start preparing for the fall. Look for a Special Edition of Next Stop GW in your inboxes by early next week. This special edition will provide you with information about what to bring as your plan ahead for your residential experience. We will continue to provide you with updates throughout the summer as we prepare to welcome you to campus.
All of us on the Campus Living and Residential Education team look forward to meeting you this fall as you begin your collegiate career at GW. In the meantime, get to know us more by following us at Home@GW on Instagram.
We hope you are continuing to have a healthy and safe summer.
Seth Weinshel & Stewart Robinette
Campus Living and Residential Education
