After two weeks of living in the library with an IV of coffee dripping into your arm, the end of finals cannot come soon enough. You race to pack up your car and head home to a summer filled with trips to the beach and catching up with friends from high school. But since you only have 24 hours after your last exam to race out of here, disasters are inevitable.
“Three years ago we had a young woman who called us the following Monday after closing. She had left all her clothing in black trash bags in her room and checked out. Unfortunately Campus Operations cleaned the room the following morning and assumed it was trash,” said Fran Koerting, associate dean of students residence life.
The day after the rooms are vacated, Campus Operations has them cleaned since they are immediately used by sports camps and parents staying during senior week.
Aelee Kwon ’04, an RA in Jogues last year, had a similar experience when one of her residents left behind an entire wardrobe. However, the resident notified Kwon within a couple hours after her departure of her mistake and the clothes were returned.
Koerting adds that if something was obviously left behind unintentionally, for example a full drawer of clothes, housing is usually notifed and the student is contacted. However, after the student checks out, it is not the university’s responsibility to contact the students regarding items left behind.
While these last few days typically run smoothly, difficulties sometimes arise due to students being required to move out of their rooms 24 hours after their last exam.
“A couple times we ran into problems when students’ parents didn’t arrive on time, for example if they were stuck in traffic,” said Laura Cantrell, director of rresidence Life.
Delays in students vacating also adds stress to RAs who have to inspect rooms immediately after the building closes.
“After the building closed last year, I had a hard time getting a resident out because she was having sex with her boyfriend,” said Kerry Winterson ’04, an RA in Regis.
The stress of move out day can also take a chunk out of students’ wallets.
“Sometimes we have students that are in such a rush to leave that they forget to take out the garbage and clean the room,” said Cantrell. “Each item left behind incurs a charge of $25 and up, depending on the size of the object. If the room is left unclean, the charge is also $25 and up. Each part of the micro fridge is assessed individually, costing upwards of $100. Unreturned keys also carry a charge.”
So before you check out of your room, clean up, make sure nothing is left behind and return your key to the RA on duty, or else you’ll be spending the summer working to pay damage fees and buying a new wardrobe instead of bathing in the sun.
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