For the first time since Associate Dean of Women Rebekah Dell can remember, upperclassmen have been allowed to move off campus for the spring semester.
Due to the addition of 19 students this semester, as well as the perpetual need for more quarantine space, the college granted permission to all 12 junior and senior women who requested to move off campus in the middle of the school year. The change allowed all transfer students to move into underclassmen dormitories, including McIntyre and Waterman residences, as well as leave some rooms available for potential quarantine use.
“Traditionally, we do not have any second-semester off-campus permissions, ever,” Dell said. “Two unique things happened this year, so we just decided this year would be a good year to make an exception to that policy. It’s better for the college to give students an opportunity.”
Usually, upperclassmen are only able to request off-campus permission at the end of the spring semester for the full upcoming academic year, but Dell said this year presented exceptional circumstances. Beginning with students who were denied permission last year, the deans offered all upperclassmen women the opportunity to move, in order of seniority.
No men, however, received the offer to move.
“We did not need to let any men off campus for the spring term to accommodate the number of new transfer students,” Dean of Men Aaron Petersen said.
Junior Patricia Becker took the opportunity to move off campus in the middle of the year for a few reasons. When given the chance to move into the College Park townhouses on West Street with her friends, she said she considered location, convenience, and financial cost.
“Part of it was having my own quieter space to study because I love living in Kappa, but with so many people it would get a little bit louder sometimes,” Becker said. “And with COVID, too, it’s nice to know that I’m less exposed than in a dorm or any larger house setting.”
Becker said she now prefers living off campus because she has a private room. Becker said she can still visit the Kappa house when she wants, but that the chances of potential exposure are far lower in her new living circumstances.
A few sophomores asked to move off campus after learning of the offer, but the deans didn’t extend any underclassmen permission, Dell said. All new male students were placed in Simpson Residence.
The college saw a 110% increase in transfer student applications this year, which Dell and Senior Director of Admissions Zach Miller speculate is due to the college’s choice to continue in-person learning during the pandemic.
“Because Hillsdale College is Hillsdale College and one of the few colleges that was in person, we had a number of students request to transfer,” Dell said. “And so in discussions with admissions, they said we have a great pool of highly-qualified students who really want to come to Hillsdale mid-year, so they could only admit a number of these if we could provide housing.”
Additionally, this created more quarantine spaces for students who are concerned about COVID-19.
“It’s hopeful to have beds where we can do soft quarantine if somebody’s sick and test-pending where they wouldn’t be sharing bathrooms with anyone,” Dell said. “Benzing and McIntyre residences now each have two spare rooms for this purpose.”
This is even more important this semester, Dell said, as the college has fewer beds at Camp Michindoh and fewer rooms in the Dow Hotel and Conference Center, which were both used as quarantine spaces last semester.
“Those extra beds gave us just a little bit more flexibility with managing COVID and all its nuances,” Dell said. “It was sort of a win-win situation.”
Dell added that the added flexibility was necessary in a strange year.
“We hope the campus will be operating quite normally next year, because at that point we’ll be looking at vaccines being available to most of our students,” she said.
