Covid-19 has changed a lot of things in our daily life. From the way we think about crowded spaces to even the value we give to our toilet paper. These responses to the sudden pandemic seem normal for mostly everyone. Yet, there is still a category of students that have lived through this situation differently, The Village School Residential-Life students.

As the news started getting more and more concerning, the dorms made a lot of new changes. The week before spring, the Res-Life spring break trip was cancelled. Each year, the dorms have 2 major trips, one during Thanksgiving and the other during spring break. Fun and safety are always prioritized, as the goal of each trip is to bring the student body closer together. This time, the dorms would go for an unprecedented decision for the spring break trip, a cruiser. However, it was unfortunately canceled after rumors of a recent cruiser being entirely quarantined came to light. The dorms suddenly transitioned from a safe position to a very cautious one, prohibiting food delivery as well as “sign-outs” (sign-out is a term commonly used within the dorms, it means going out of the campus). Residential Life quarantine began and students have not been permitted to go outside campus ever since. 

Any signs of sickness result in immediate quarantine for the student and testing for Coronavirus. No contact, full isolation, and very limited resources are available to the student during their time in quarantine.

Furthermore, social distancing was enforced and rules like “no more than 3 people per table” began to limit communication. Students have been allowed to leave to their countries since the dorms announced so around the middle of spring break. There are 47 students left in the dorms as of Friday, May 15, 2020 . with an average of a student leaving every other day. The food was additionally heavily impacted. All food is served in plastic containers and a mask is required to be worn in the area at all times.

There have been a lot of changes to the way students develop in this environment, and there are definitely some uncomfortable aspects to what the dorms have opted to do for the past 2 months. Everyone must look at it from a different perspective though. The Residential Life staff has and is doing everything in their hands to handle this situation with precaution and care to make the dorms a safe place.