Important Fall Housing Update
07/01/2020, 11:10:02 AM
 
July | 2020
An Important Update on Fall Housing at the University of Houston
Dear Residential Community Member,
 
Student Housing & Residential Life (SHRL) is excited to welcome you to campus this fall. Like all of you, we have been adjusting to life and COVID-19. As you make plans for the fall, we hope you will join us in making COVID-19 prevention a priority for the remainder of the summer and through the fall. Below are a few updates we want to share.
Move-In
We are revising our move-in procedures to support social distancing recommendations and will send information about move-in directly to residents soon. This will include a move-in sign up reservation process where you choose a specific day and time to move in between August 17 - August 22. This move-in reservation process will include a requirement for residents to acknowledge information and expectations about living on campus during the 2020-2021 academic year.
 
Residents MUST select their move-in time via the myHousing portal beginning July 20. Students are encouraged to bring their own moving supplies as volunteers will not be available. For more information on move-in please review our move-in guide. For the safety of everyone, it will be critical for residents to adhere to their dedicated move-in day and time, wear face coverings, and follow social distancing recommendations during move-in.
Student Housing & Residential Life
Operation Changes
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused anxiety, change, economic impact, and grief. We all must acknowledge that there are inherent risks in coming together in any space. As of this communication, there is no cure or vaccine for COVID-19, therefore we need to be vigilant about prevention. Residents, their families, chosen families, and SHRL Staff must review and follow CDC recommendations for living in shared spaces, which includes maintaining social distancing, wearing face coverings in public spaces outside of their room, washing their hands regularly, and cleaning frequently touched surfaces.
 
Student Housing & Residential Life will make changes in space usage, interaction with staff, and resident expectations related to personal cleaning and disinfecting. Specifically, we will be increasing the cleaning of community bathrooms and “high touch” spaces multiple times each day during the weekdays and at least once during weekends. Additionally, we will place signage throughout our communities reminding our residents to maintain appropriate social distancing and to follow all other recommended guidelines for health and safety.
 
We will communicate any changes and updates directly to residents and will post these on our website, here in our FAQs. We encourage you to visit this information regularly for the most up to date Student Housing & Residential Life information.
Benefits Of Living On Campus This Fall
We have received some questions about living on campus this fall with many classes being offered on-line and classes going fully on-line after Thanksgiving for the last week of the fall semester. We wanted to share the following information:
  • Housing will open in the fall and operate through the academic year. Our housing agreement is for the fall and spring (Bayou Oaks includes the summer). Housing does not close, even over winter break. Winter break is included in the housing agreement for students returning in the spring semester.
     
  • We understand that UH classes will occur in the fall in three formats:
    • HyFlex classes, which will provide “face to face” instruction on campus.  To respect the need for social distancing in our classrooms, we may have limited access to “face to face” sections in these HyFlex classes. Face-to-face HyFlex classes are also live-streamed to allow students to attend virtually, or a recorded version of the class can be watched online outside of normal class hours.
    • Virtual, live-streamed classes scheduled as normal at a particular time and day for those who do not wish to come to campus. 
    • Fully online classes available at any time for those do not wish to come to campus but need a flexible schedule
    • No matter what format your courses are offered, housing continues to be a good option for students with its immediate proximity to campus support resources, classes, and faculty. Housing offers community engagement, excellent Wi-Fi, computer labs, study rooms, helpful staff 24 hours a day, free laundry, and all included utilities.

 

  • The deadline to cancel housing for the fall without penalty is July 24, 2020. We have pushed this date back a few times to support students and families.

 

 

  • We will continue to support you as best we can. We are proud of our department and our university’s response to COVID-19 this past spring semester. We made decisions in the best interest of students, families, and chosen families by allowing students to cancel their student housing and get a refund based on the pandemic and the home stay order. Additionally, we have remained open and continued to serve those students who wanted to remain on campus. 
     
You are Important
Your wellbeing and student success remain our highest priority. We all have a responsibility to help minimize the spread of COVID-19 for ourselves and for each other. Please follow the best-practice prevention strategies listed here, such as regular hand washing, wearing face covering, and disinfecting surfaces in your surroundings. For information related to the university response to COVID-19, please visit: www.uh.edu/covid-19. The information on this page will be continuously updated.
 
If you have any questions, please contact us at 713-743-6000 or housing@uh.edu.
 
Sincerely,
Student Housing & Residential Life
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This is an official message sent by the University of Houston. To verify the validity of this message, email security@uh.edu.