Talking Stick - September/October 2016 - 25

of housing and residential life.
"Winter break is a period when
housing is not considered merely a
convenience but is a necessity for
some students," he says.
Providing housing during break
periods has influenced financial
modeling and budgets for many
institutions. They must now consider
the costs associated with providing
staffing and programming. While
many pass the cost along to the
population of students who stay for
the break, others have opted to fold
the expenses into existing housing
rates for a more consistent funding
source. At Southeast Missouri State
University in Cape Girardeau, break
housing is open to all students for all
breaks. "Our break housing numbers
have been increasing for the past
several years, which prompted us to
request rolling the cost into room
rent for all on-campus students. This
academic year will be the first year
with this, so we're unsure how many
students may choose to stay or come
and go during the break," says Kendra
Skinner, director of residence life.
Previously students were charged $25
per night, which was capped at $250
maximum, for all breaks. For the
2016-17 academic year, all room rates
were increased by $30, and students
will no longer need to come up with
additional funds to stay in their rooms
during break periods. "The $25 per
night fee was cost prohibitive for many
of our students who had nowhere
else to go and made it difficult for
international students to get a clear
picture of the housing costs during the
academic year," explains Skinner.
The University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign charges students
a daily rate for break housing but
allows students to contract on a pernight basis to ensure that they aren't
being charged for services they aren't
using. "We found that students may
only need one night at the beginning

or end of the break. We also found
that international students like to
do traveling or sightseeing while
they are in the United States. They
may stay two nights for break, travel,
and then come back before the halls
open. We have a very flexible process,
and it is much more sustainable,"
explains Kellie Blanden, coordinator
for housing information. There are
also designated areas on campus that
remain open during breaks. "We have
24 undergraduate halls, and out of
those halls, students can remain in
their same room in nine of the halls
during breaks if they sign a break
housing contract. Students who do not
live in those locations can still sign a
break housing contract and then be
assigned to a lounge space in one of
those halls."

THE STAFFING OF
BREAK HOUSING
OPTIONS RANGES
FROM A SKELETON
CREW TO A ROBUST
COMPLEMENT
OF RESIDENCE
DIRECTORS
AND RESIDENT
ASSISTANTS,
DEPENDING ON
THE PRIORITIES OF
A BREAK HOUSING
PROGRAM AND
ANTICIPATED
STUDENT NEEDS.

At Otterbein University in
Westerville, Ohio, a small number of
residence halls remain open during
the breaks, according to Tracy Benner,
director of residence life, and the onus
is put on the students to identify a
place to stay. "If a student does not
currently live in the break housing
hall, they are asked to find a space
to live in a hall which is open and to
receive written agreement from the
students who reside in that room to
use their space," explains Benner.
Otterbein has been asking students
to find their own break housing space
for 20 years now, with few student
complaints or concerns. "We switched
a few years ago to asking students
who are allowing someone to use
their room to sign off on that after an
issue, but we rarely have a student who
cannot find someone to allow them to
use their room. We sometimes have
to ask RAs or other students in a hall
to consider allowing someone to use
their room or use a room which will
fully vacate at the end of the semester."

create challenges for the transition
to the new academic term, including
ensuring that occupied rooms that
will be getting a new resident are
move-in ready. Skinner feels that the
convenience for students outweighs
the costs of allowing them to stay in
their own room. "Students remain
in their current assignments for all
break periods. We don't ask them to
consolidate into one building just for
the break. This does spread people
throughout campus, but we don't have
a building we can dedicate just for
break periods. We feel this is more
convenient for the student," she says.

Though the break housing option
is a largely positive one, allowing
residents to remain in their rooms can

The dynamic of campus changes
during break, the bustling activity of
students decreased to nearly nothing

SEPTEMBER + OCTOBER 2016

25
Talking Stick - September/October 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Talking Stick - September/October 2016
