University Moves Back and Forth, ‘Still Reviewing’ Some Housing Decisions

Given the overwhelming number of requests that the University received from students to remain on campus in light of the latest coronavirus response, University officials narrowed the original criteria in order to reduce population density on campus—before rolling back on some restrictions to give more leeway to international students. Earlier this week, the University informed students who had applied that they would know of the outcome of their applications by 9 p.m. on Friday, Mar. 13. On 10 p.m. Saturday, students from Hong Kong and other countries like Macedonia who were originally denied, received an email that their applications had been accepted after all, creating confusion among students who had already bought flight tickets, stored their belongings and planned on leaving campus in the next few days. “If you live sixteen hours away by plane, that margin of uncertainty is not something that is easy to handle,” said Sophie Li ‘21, from Hong Kong. After being notified that her application had been denied at 5 p.m. on Friday, she began packing and bought a flight ticket to stay with a friend in Colorado for the next few weeks. After the latest announcement, however, she is unsure what she will do next. She defines the situation as one of “confusion and guesswork” as various international students tried to figure out why some were accepted and others were not.  Li said that what she found most troubling was the lack of clarity on why certain students were originally denied. “There was not a whole lot of guidance from the University,” she said.Also notably affected are seniors who were denied after being told that they would be considered due to lab or other Princeton-based research. “We received nearly 1000 requests from students whose circumstances require them to stay on campus,” Dolan wrote in an email to faculty on Saturday morning. “We began with the assumption that seniors who needed on-campus resources to conduct their thesis research could remain, but the situation shifted very quickly… As a result, we must prioritize those students who can’t return home and ask seniors who can return home to do so.” Seniors in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering who had applied to remain on campus to work on their theses were informed by their department on Saturday morning that all labs would be closed after Mar. 19, meaning that no seniors could continue lab work. The message was clarified by Senior Associate Dean of the College Claire Fowler, who wrote to students via email at noon on Saturday that "there are no exceptions on academic grounds for any MAE senior.""The one thing I really wanted to keep working on was my thesis," said Beimnet Shitaye '20, a senior in the MAE department. "As soon as they said the labs were going to be closed, I thought—that’s it. If there’s no thesis, it feels like everything is pretty much pointless.”

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Despite the University's initial claim that students would be updated by 9 p.m. on Friday, Mar. 13, some received updates as early as 4 p.m. on Friday while others didn’t hear back until midday the next day, as University officials evaluated the submissions following the declaration of a national emergency  by President Donald Trump on Friday afternoon. According to University spokesperson Ben Chang, officials are “still reviewing” many requests. “Some of those whose requests have been approved have changed their plans and withdrawn their request,” he wrote in an email to the Press Club. “ We hope to have a firm count of those who have completed the registration process to stay on campus by early next week.”Among those who have been approved include international students who cannot return home due to global flight restrictions or visa concerns, as well as students experiencing housing or financial precarity. “[The University] is offering more than I would’ve asked for, so I’m just really grateful,” said Dana Harris ‘21, who was confirmed to remain on campus due to housing concerns. She is happy that Dining Services is allowing all remaining students—regardless of meal plan—to get boxed food from Whitman Dining Hall, which will stay open for the rest of the semester. Yet she recalled being “extremely anxious” that she hadn’t heard back from University officials until around 11 p.m. on Friday night, two hours later than expected.In the original Mar. 11 announcement, Dean Jill Dolan specified nine main criteria that students had to meet in order to be considered to remain. The list of students who would considered included:

•  A senior who must conduct lab or other Princeton-based research on campus that’s required for your senior thesis;
• A student who faces housing insecurity (homelessness or a precarious living situation);
• A student who faces financial insecurity;
• A student previously certified “independent for the purposes of financial aid”;
• An athlete still in competition and required to be on campus;
• A student currently residing in “family housing”;
• An international student who has immigration, travel, and/or visa restrictions;
• An international student whose home is in a country currently designed at a Warning Levels 2 & 3 and USDOS Levels 3 & 4 for COVID-19;
• An international student whose home is in an area with extremely limited internet connectivity.

Some students appealed their denials, with mixed results. After finding out that her application had been denied at around 4 p.m. on Friday afternoon, Diana Zhang ‘22—whose family home is in Guangzhou, China—was “shocked”; she immediately reached out to her Director of Student Life in order to appeal the decision, she said, given China’s designation as a Risk Level 3 country by the Center for Disease Control.The University revised their decision by midnight of the same day. “I was very relieved, but also angry because I didn’t think I needed to go through this to get approval,” said Zhang. After the trauma of the last few days, she said, “I was constantly crying for so many days… just having this one thing more [to worry about], I started crying again. I didn’t know I had it in me to be this emotionally broken.” Earlier today, the University also announced that the second of the staff members under isolation from possible exposure to COVID-19 tested positive. “Both staff members remain in self-isolation, and we are working to ensure they have the support and access to care that they need,” reads the announcement.