Spring Reopening Update

Dear Goucher Community,

The Spring Reopening Task Force continues to meet weekly to plan how to welcome students back to campus. We also continue to update our Return to Campus website and recommend you check it regularly.

Two important deadlines are approaching in the coming weeks. Both the housing registration and class registration windows will open on November 9.

We've heard from a number of you regarding questions about housing options. We regret that we are faced with the situation created by the pandemic, where we might not be able to offer all our students the option of residing on campus in the spring. However, the safety of all of our students is our top priority. Therefore, we decided to only offer single-room residency to our students this spring, reducing our on-campus capacity from roughly 1,125 to 725 beds.

Consequently, after consulting with faculty, academic affairs staff, and student affairs staff, the spring reopening taskforce had to establish some priorities should we be faced with a housing shortage with students who live more than 25-50 miles from campus and who are (1) first-year students, (2) student-athletes, (3) sophomore students, (4) seniors, and (5) juniors getting priority and then (6) students residing less than 25 miles from campus placed last. The academic affairs and student affairs staff will also do everything they can to take specific requests and situations into account, such as seniors majoring in dance or other disciplines where being physically present on campus would make a significant difference in their educational experience.

As this is the first time any of us have experienced a pandemic in our lifetimes, we do not have any historical metrics to base our spring residence hall projections upon, so we may very well be able to satisfy everyone who wants to come back to campus in the spring. We hope that will be the case but cannot make that promise at this time.

All students who want to live on campus in the spring should apply for housing. After all students submit their housing applications, and we have completed the room draw, our Student Affairs staff will contact all students to let them know the next steps.

We hope this helps to clarify how our spring reopening taskforce is trying to balance ensuring that we can address all our students' needs while keeping everyone safe. We continue to make decisions based on the information currently available. Some decisions are still pending while we await additional information. For example, the Landmark Conference will make a final decision about the spring season by November 6, and we will send an update accordingly.

As always, reach out with any questions.

Be well.