 "Photo: Photo by Kari Robinson")
UW-Oshkosh, along with numerous other colleges, closes down dorms for Thanksgiving break, leaving some students limited to where they will stay this Thanksgiving.
Oshkosh is closing down half of its residence halls due to the low number of students who stay during the holidays.
There are exceptions, though, because of international students on campus and other students who aren’t able to leave for break.
For those students who need to stay, there are some dorms that are available during the break.
Stewart, Evans, Taylor, Donner and Webster halls are all open during Thanksgiving break and are available to students who don’t want to or cannot leave during the breaks.
Gruenhagen Conference Center is also available for students to reside in during the break for a small fee.
According to Tom Fojtik, director of Residence Life, the campus will make plans to change how and what dorms will be open next year so that students are offered more flexible choices.
“Very few students stay over Thanksgiving, or any break (maybe 50 campus- wide), but there are those, especially international students, who do have special needs during break times and we need to be able to accommodate everyone’s needs,” Fojtik said.
Campuses close for breaks not only to celebrate the holidays and give students, faculty and staff a break, but also to use this time to do safety checks in the residence halls and academic buildings. They also complete as many maintenance projects as possible while time is available. With the dorms closed, this makes these duties much easier for the maintenance crews.
One student, Kearstin Van Alstine, is a firm believer that either all the dorms should stay open so that students can return when they want to.
“I think that all the dorms should stay open because like my dorm, Nelson Hall, I can’t come back until a certain time, which limits when I can come back here,” she said.
But other students have no need for the dorms to be open.
“I wouldn’t even want to stay on campus even if every dorm was open,” Katelyn Wilhelm, a freshman, said. “It’s Thanksgiving, so I’m going to be with my family.”
The dorms aren’t the only part of campus that is closed.
“The entire campus will be closed including dorms, commons and dining areas because of the break to get maintenance and safety checks done but normal office hours after the Thanksgiving holiday will be in place,” Fojtik said.
Even though the campus will be closed, students have the option of staying here during the break and are accommodated so that it is comfortable and easy for them to stay.
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