Northern Vermont University – Lyndon admissions are trending up for next school year, but the COVID-19 pandemic will still have an impact. Masks and travel restrictions look to be gone for the fall semester, but according to Dean of Students Jonathan Davis, it’s too early to make a concrete decision.
Davis has been meeting regularly with state officials of Vermont about the health regulations that NVU is required to follow. He says the last meeting was in late March and he is still waiting for guidelines for the summer and fall semesters. “For the fall, we’re really eager to know what conditions we’ll be operating under. As far as our students are concerned, as far as Admissions is concerned, we are projecting that we will open with very few restrictions.”
While masking and testing policies can’t be set in stone yet, Director of Student Life Erin Rossetti says they had to operate based on housing guidelines that existed in February for the selection process to roll out in April. NVU-Lyndon will once again operate with single rooms only, according to the school’s website. “We know that single rooms were a big part of our success,” says Davis.
Customers of the university will be charged a “double-room” semesterly rate of $3,656 in all buildings unless they choose to live in Rita Bole without a meal plan, where the price is $5,047. This is a 3% increase voted on by the Vermont State Colleges System in December 2020.
Rossetti says that if regulations from the state change over the coming months, students will be allowed to have one roommate, but there are no plans for triple rooms.
NVU-Lyndon student Stephen Sandor says he likes having his own room, but he is “concerned” about student involvement at campus events, which has been low this school year.
Despite the limited amount of students, the tone from school officials is positive when speaking about admissions for next year. They are expecting “remote learning” students to return as residential students based on a housing intent form that was emailed last month. Admissions are also up from last year, something Rossetti speculates could be because students who hesitated because of the pandemic feel safer applying this year.
NVU-Lyndon expects they will have room for all returning and new students even with the single room policy. “As long as I have worked here, even if we had to–and I don’t anticipate we have to do this–but just as an example, even if we had to put students up in a hotel, we haven’t turned students away,” said Rossetti. The Whitelaw and Crevecoeur residence halls will still be held as quarantine housing, but when more concrete guidelines for fall travel are passed down from the state, those buildings may be opened up for normal student housing.
NVU’s vaccine policy for next year is also contingent on more guidance from the state, but Davis says the conversation has taken place amongst NVU and Vermont State Colleges System officials. “All students right now, whether you live on campus or not, are required to have a standard set of immunizations required by the state,” said Davis, later adding, “it will be a Vermont State Colleges System decision. Sophie Zdatny, our chancellor, will make that final call.” Davis anticipates a requirement for a vaccine with possible exceptions for religious or health reasons on an individual basis but says that it’s too early in the mass vaccination process to make that judgment now.
Feature Photo by Alexandra Huff
Margaret T. Lipscomb
If we want a normal on-campus life, vaccines should be required.