The University of Miami Department of Housing and Residential Life (HRL) announced a new application process with hopes of smoother room selection for those seeking on-campus housing in 2023. With no guarantee of accommodation, many students are gearing up for another battle for on-campus housing. When the application opened on Feb. 3, the application website crashed, creating a long line of anxious in-person visitors at HRL’s office on the first floor of Eaton Residential College. Most students who came in-person were looking to resolve an issue regarding their roommates. For some students, there was a glitch in the application that switched their gender, resulting in an incorrect list of roommates.
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Stanford Residential College, which was originally set to be demolished in the summer of 2020, remained open this school year to house another class of freshmen and provide more on-campus living spaces during COVID. Photo credit: File Photo
The class of 2024 arrived on campus in the fall ready to flourish in the freedoms that come with freshman year. But many residential freshmen say the pandemic, especially a midnight curfew imposed by Miami-Dade County and the University of Miami, robbed them of one of the reasons they chose to be Miami a chance to stay out late and explore the haunts of South Beach, Wynwood and Brickell.
For the past year, students on campus were trapped inside their dorms, forced to be inside their residential areas by midnight. Alongside the Miami-Dade County curfew being lifted, the University of Miami Department of Housing and Residential Life has also decided to lift its midnight curfew. On April 12, a newsletter was sent out to residential students informing them that they may come and go as they please without any consequences.
“Lifting the midnight curfew will hopefully reduce the stress or worry of students,” Executive Director of Residential Life, Ivan Ceballos said. “Especially with final exams around the corner.”
This news sparked a lot of joy in the students, normalizing their campus experience, as they will now not have to worry about being back on campus by a certain time.