Students remaining on campus over the 10-day period after the end of finals on Dec. 22 will this year be charged a $100 winter housing fee, the Office of Residential Life and Learning (ResLife) announced in a Nov. 15 e-mail to international students.
Prior to this year, students have never been charged for remaining on campus throughout winter break, an option sometimes taken up by international students who must travel far to return home, according to Director of ResLife Yolanda King. The fee, collected from students' bursar accounts, will go toward providing compensation to staff members responsible for monitoring the students who stay on campus during the break as well as toward programming for students.
In response to the announcement, several international students voiced objections to what they called a late warning and lack of student consultation in the decision-making process.
Sophomores Vivien Lim and Xiaochong Yao drafted an online petition calling for ResLife to reconsider the policy, offer the Tufts community an explanation for the fee and provide greater transparency and student involvement in future decision-making. Lim is also a copy editor for the Daily.
This year, students are not allowed to remain on campus for free until Jan. 2, when winter sports teams are cleared to return to on-campus housing and international students are also allowed back.
"At the beginning of January the students will return back to their original rooms along with students approved to return for the winter sport teams," King said in an e-mail to the Daily. "We will also resume with appropriate in hall staff coverage but with limited services until January 18, 2011 when the halls reopen for other students."
The International Center will fully subsidize the fee for affected international students on financial aid, according to its director, Jane Etish-Andrews. The money, drawn from the center's budget, will not affect aid provided to international students by the Office of Financial Aid, Etish-Andrews said.
"From the beginning, I knew we would accommodate students on any kind of aid," she said. "It was not to be a burden for them."
King said the fee has not seemed to deter students from staying over the break. Twenty-four students currently plan to stay on campus after the end of classes, a number consistent with those from past years, according to King.
Etish-Andrews said that while she understands students' frustration over the late notice, the amount of money is insignificant.
"I just don't see it as a burden at $10 a day," she said. "These are students whose parents are paying full tuition; I think they can swing $10 per day."
Yao said that the fee could prove an unwelcome surprise for students operating under tight budgets while in the United States.
"It's a bit inconsiderate," Yao said. "$100 may be a small amount for some people and may be a big amount for others who weren't expecting it."
Several fellow international students were forced to make alternative arrangements for the break after learning about the new fee, according to Yao.
"One of my friends is an international student who is not on financial aid but cannot pay for the charge," Yao said. "She is on a tight budget."
Yao said students should have been consulted in the decision-making process.
"Has ResLife actually gone to ask students if they want to have those activities or if they would rather save their money for other purposes?" she said. "They assume students' needs and wants without asking what they need and want."
Yao, Lim and King met last week about students concerns. At the meeting, King said that while it was too late to revoke the policy for this year, ResLife promises to offer the Tufts community a more clear explanation of the decision, according to Yao.
"They acknowledge that they didn't inform us as early as possible about their reasons behind the decision," Yao said on Friday. ResLife promised that this week it would send an e-mail with an explanation of the policy to all students affected by it, she said.
Lim said she was disappointed with what she called ResLife's unresponsiveness to student feedback and with what she considered insufficient channels of communication between students and administrators.
"Overall, the impression we got was that they feel they already do all the things we want them to do, and if we have any negative perceptions of ResLife, well that's just too bad," she said.
International students staying on campus during the 10-day period in previous years have temporarily moved into Metcalf, Richardson and Stratton Halls, according to King.
In order to minimize disruption for residents of those dorms, students staying over the break this year will instead live in either the Commuter House (Hillside House) or the International House, according to King.
Etish-Andrews added that the move to house students together in these two smaller buildings, rather than large dorms, will help prevent them from feeling isolated.
"They are small houses where students will be together and have a sense of community," Etish-Andrews said. "It's pretty lonely to be here over break, so I am glad there is a group that can be together."
