Vacation Policy for Campus Students
For many freshman students this year, paying for college is all they thought was needed. Soon as the vacation comes around, it turns into a whole different matter. With vacations such as Christmas and spring break students do pay to stay. According to David Lewis Jr. and Colby Cain, Resident Directors and Coordinators of Student Life, the Husson Residential Policy for vacations states that all breaks are not included in the school’s housing contract.
Most students that stay on campus are international students or athletic students. Students must fill out a vacation request form before they can stay on campus. After returning the form to the residential director of their dorm hall, the residential director will then notify the Associative Dean for application review. Usually students with good academic and social standings are allowed to stay, and are notified within 24 to 48 hours. Students are required to move out the night before vacation begins at the latest. Costs of staying vary every year. Last year’s approximate costs were $115 per week without meals and $175 per week with meals. Since Husson is a profit-free university, money that students pay to stay goes directly towards the school’s expenses while they stay.
Derek LaPlante, who’s a freshman at Husson University commented, “Well I personally think that for as much as we are paying for room and board a year, then we should be able to stay here.”
Currently the amount of money that a student pays for room and board is roughly $7000 a year for both NESCom and Husson University students.
Some students have to figure in travelling costs into their financial plans. One commuting student, Tim Ferris, a sophomore at NESCom explained, “I think it’s silly, because the room isn’t really doing much of anything while you’re gone… a lot of us take a bus to go home during break, which costs about $50 round trip, and staying here costs what, $75 a day? It’s ridiculous.”
It becomes a serious financial problem for some students to travel back and forth from home, but what about those who think that it is a fair deal?
Alba Briggs, a sophomore, thought, “Well, I do think they shouldn’t have to pay extra for Thanksgiving, because it’s not a very long time… but for Christmas they should definitely have to pay.”
Personnel have to be hired, food has to be provided, and security needs to be on the look out. Brigg says this about personnel, “They would have to pay janitors, Dickerman workers, security and all kinds of other people they don’t need around over break.”
Whether or not students decide to stay on campus for vacations or go home, they seem to feel that these extra fees are unnecessary and create financial problems. Maybe in the future these issues will be considered. As for now the vacation policy is set in stone.
article by Ken J. Merchant
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