Dear Students,

We hope that you are doing well. As you read in President Paxson’s message on Oct. 29, Brown has developed plans to welcome students from each undergraduate class back to campus in the spring term and has established principles to define which options are available to students. 

All currently enrolled students will have the option to maintain their fall location of study, though housing assignments may change. Even though Fall 2020 housing assignments were for one semester only, as a student currently living on campus in Brown-owned or -leased off-campus housing, you are guaranteed a housing assignment in spring term if you choose to live on campus. However, for multiple reasons — including to welcome a larger number of students to campus, devote more central residences to first-year students as they learn to navigate Brown, and to create additional capacity for isolation and quarantine housing — all students living on campus this fall should be prepared to vacate their fall assignment at the end of this semester and receive a new housing assignment for spring. In anticipating that students might have different housing assignments in spring, students were advised in multiple communications prior to their arrival to bring only essential items to campus in the fall. 

We know at this time that the following residences will be used either for first-year students or for additional isolation and quarantine housing: Andrews, Buxton, Caswell, Champlin, Emery, Grad Center D, Gregorian Quad A (floors 1-4), Gregorian Quad B, Hegeman, Hope, Keeney Quad (Archibald-Bronson, Everett-Poland, Jameson-Mead), Littlefield, Metcalf, Miller, Morriss, New Pembroke (1, 2, 3, 4), Perkins, Slater, Wayland, Woolley, and Young Orchard 2. If you live in one of these locations, you will need to fully vacate your room and return your key at the end of fall term. Students in other buildings may also have a different spring assignment. Any student with a disability who has an approved housing accommodation through Student Accessibility Services and whose housing assignment changes will receive a reasonable housing accommodation in their new assignment.

The Office of Residential Life will notify you about the status of your spring assignment as soon as possible, but this information may not be known before Thanksgiving Break. If you are departing campus before you receive confirmation of your spring assignment, you should fully vacate your room and return your key when you depart. We know that this ambiguity can be difficult to navigate, and Residential Life staff will do all they can to notify you as quickly as possible if you need to fully vacate at the end of the term. 

In order to inform the housing assignment process, students who select “on campus” as their spring location of study on the form due Nov. 8 will receive a link to the Housing Questionnaire on Monday, Nov. 9. The Housing Questionnaire is due by Sunday, Nov. 15, at 11:59 p.m. EST.

Spring housing assignments will be communicated by early December. When you receive your housing assignment, you will be able to select your spring move-in date/time between January 9 and January 12, 2021. Students will again follow a Quiet Period from arrival until the start of in-person classes on January 27. 

All undergraduate students planning to enroll in the spring need to provide their location of study no later than 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020, via the Location of Study Form. Please consult the detailed housing information posted on Healthy.Brown.edu. A chart located there provides an at-a-glance view of the location of study options. Your form will display the options that are available to you based on factors such as your class year, current Fall 2020 location of study or permanent address; your options will include “on-campus housing” among other choices because that is your current location of study. 

The fall semester will conclude with a remote reading week and remote final exams after Thanksgiving Break. The residence halls will close at 12 noon on Saturday, December 12, after the conclusion of the remote final exam period. If you travel away from campus for Thanksgiving Break, you may not return to campus until move-in for the spring semester between January 9 and January 12, 2021. You will receive a communication next week with a link to a form where you will need to provide your departure date so that your COVID-19 testing can be paused for the semester. If you need to request on-campus Winter Break housing, a Winter Break meal plan or financial assistance for these, those requests can be made via the same form. This form will be due Nov. 13, 2020.

Protecting the health and safety of the community remains the University’s highest priority, and we thank you for your ongoing efforts to care for yourselves and others through this difficult time. We know that this is a lot of information and that it can be difficult to manage through the ever-evolving landscape of the pandemic. Should the public health situation force any changes to Brown’s plans, we will be sure to share further information as quickly as possible. 

As you work through your various decisions and planning, please know that there are many resources and people who are here to support you. Please email spring2021@brown.edu or call 401-863-3500 with any questions about the Location of Study Form. We hope the remainder of the semester goes well for you. 

Sincerely,

Eric Estes
Vice President for Campus Life

Rashid Zia
Dean of the College