MANSFIELD, Connecticut — Today was moving day for some students at the University of Connecticut, but as expected this semester looks a lot different.
“It’s usually packed with a bunch of people, I know some friends that didn’t get excepted into housing the process is just pretty crazy. Last year when I came it was packed there was no parking the line was all the way down there it was pretty crazy,” said Myles Moier, a Junior at UConn.
This year, before students were even able to move-in, the process started with a COVID-19 test. Until those test results come back they’ll be spending a lot of time in their new dorm rooms.
“We are really limiting their movement on campus until we know those test results. And even then we’re going to limit their involved even then we’re going to limit their involvement on campus family unit to the family unit, which is the amount of students we have assigned to a bathroom and those units range in size 2 as few as to average about 15 and on average about 15 students and are more traditional first-year dorms,” said Eleanor Daugherty, Dean of Students.
The University of Connecticut will be considerably more online this semester though there will be some in-person classes. Only about 5500 students living on campus, a fraction of a typical semester.
“It’s different in past years you bring your friends you bring your family you are moving and you get to set up your dorm and everybody’s excited. It’s a little less exciting, a little more cautious but I’m still looking forward to the year and will see how it goes,” said Kevin Perrone, a Senior at UConn.
Even the classes that are happening on campus will have significantly reduced class sizes. Social gatherings on campus will take a semester off.
UConn said more than 2,000 COVID tests administered to the employees and students and none have come back positive. The university also said out of the 1,720 tested employees and 380 tested students, all tests have come back negative as of Thursday.