SU students don’t need to take all belongings home for winter break

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Syracuse University is asking students living on campus to pack and label all their belongings before leaving for winter break, though students do not have to completely move out of their dorms, university officials said Tuesday.

Students should take all items of significant value with them when departing campus, said Eileen Simmons, director of Housing, Meal Plan and I.D. Card Services and Terra Peckskamp, senior director of the Office of Student Living, in a campus-wide email on Tuesday. Students will have to pack any loose belongings they leave behind into boxes and label them with their name and a shipping address. 

Large items such as fans, furniture or wall hangings do not need to be packed, but students should clearly label them with their name. SU will provide boxes for students to pack smaller belongings.

SU officials have asked students to pack their belongings as a precaution for the “unlikely event” that the university doesn’t resume residential instruction in the spring semester. Vice Chancellor Mike Haynie, who has spearheaded SU’s coronavirus response, has said that a spike in coronavirus cases in central New York could affect the university’s plans to continue in-person instruction after winter break. 

When SU first suspended in-person classes and asked students to depart campus in March, students had the option to allow university-hired contractors to pack and ship belongings left in their dorms. More than 100 students later returned to move out of their dorm rooms and found that their belongings had been stolen. The Department of Public Safety traced those thefts back to the contractors SU hired to ship students’ belongings. 

“As a University, we are taking this proactive step because we are learning from our past experiences,” Simmons and Peckskamp said in the email. 

Students must also return their keys in before they leave for winter break, they said. SU personnel will return the keys during the check-in process in January. 

The Office of Student Living will host two Zoom question and answer sessions on Oct. 22 to address students’ concerns about the move-out process, and will distribute a detailed move-out checklist to all dorms and South Campus apartments in the next two weeks.