Housing and Residence Life

Rachel Lindhart Author

06/16/2021 Added

33 Plays

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Skip to 17:05 to start. Hosted by University Housing & Residence Life.

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[00:17:05.000]Hello, good evening everyone. It is precisely 6pm. central time here in Nebraska which means it is time to kick off this evenings webinar, during which we will be chatting about Housing and Residence Life at Nebraska, with some folks from the housing office.
[00:17:22.000]So thanks for joining us. I'm going to get us started here with introductions. My name is Rachel in heart and I'm an orientation coordinator in the office of new student enrollment, so I primarily focus on large scale events.
[00:17:33.000]I plan our extended orientation and big red welcome, and I'm also running the webinar series this summer so it is an honor to be with you this evening.
[00:17:41.000]And I will pass it off to Dustin evening, everyone. My name is Dustin Rollins and I serve as the director of residential education for housing and residents.
[00:17:57.000]And hello everyone my name is Jordan form and black as he him his pronouns and I'm an Associate Director for learning experience in Residence Life.
[00:18:09.000]Thank you both. As you can see we have a panel of experts here tonight to talk all things Housing and Residence Life so to provide a bit of an agenda for this evening.
[00:18:19.000]Justin and Jordan will be talking through some Housing and Residence Life protocol. Some overview for for a meal plans and the moving process for this fall, and really tonight we want to focus on opportunity to answer your questions.
[00:18:32.000]So, we will be taking collect, we will be taking questions throughout the evening, and we will answer those towards the end so anytime that you have a question.
[00:18:41.000]Go ahead and pop it in the q amp a box that stands for question and answer that's available towards the bottom of your screen or the side of your screen panel along the black bar.
[00:18:51.000]We're using the webinar feature this evening so you won't have access to your microphone or your camera and that is that is ok that's the setup for this evening.
[00:19:00.000]And so any questions or types that you have you can push those the q amp a feature, and we will get those answered towards the end of the session.
[00:19:08.000]Lastly I am recording this evening session so if you want to refer back to anything or you want to pass it on to someone, I will send you a link, and a copy of the PowerPoint slides tomorrow, so that you can refer back to this in the future.
[00:19:24.000]Alright, without further ado, I'm going to pass it over to Dustin and Jordan to provide a housing overview.
[00:19:30.000]Thanks Rachel.
[00:19:31.000]Hello everyone again Justin Rollins he has his and I do again serve as the director of residential education here for the Department of Residence Life and Housing and Dining at the University of Nebraska Lincoln campus.
[00:19:45.000]I'm excited to be with you tonight to talk a little bit about housing, and what you can expect in your experience, but before we do that just from housing and all of us here at Housing and Dining we want to congratulate you and your students on being
[00:19:58.000]admitted to the University of Nebraska and hopefully choosing to come here and learn with us over the next four years as you work towards your next degree.
[00:20:09.000]It is it is a testament to your work and your hard work that you are here, and that you are even at this stage in the process so we are super excited.
[00:20:19.000]We hope we can convince you that living on campus is something that you are eager and excited to do and can't wait to be on campus with us. So with that, what I will start with is in Housing and Dining we are guided by our educational priority.
[00:20:34.000]So we are no longer just a place to sleep. We are a place for you to engage with the campus community.
[00:20:40.000]Build your skills in terms of relationships and inclusion, and we do believe truly that as a result of living on campus here at ul that you will learn to thrive as engaged members of your communities and that's both here on campus in the residence halls
[00:20:55.000]and student organizations, but that is also when you leave our campus when you have graduated you have that degree and you go off for that next opportunity.
[00:21:04.000]We hope that you can take those skills with you to be successful in your new communities and your new environments.
[00:21:12.000]The way that we do that here on our campus is we follow the Husker power model in Residence Life and so we are really interested in helping students figure out what your, what you feel your purposes.
[00:21:25.000]And that can be your academic purpose, such as your major, how to work with your faculty and your advisors, but that could also really be your purpose in life, and that may sound daunting.
[00:21:36.000]And of course it can change over time, but we really want to help you start engaging those really critical questions as you think about what you're majoring and how that's going to apply to your life and help you feel fulfilled both on campus, as well
[00:21:49.000]as off campus once you graduate.
[00:21:51.000]We want you to take ownership, not only of your experience but of your work to learn about folks who are different than you, whether that be your roommates, whether that be somebody in the dining hall might that be enjoying a different type of food or
[00:22:06.000]coming to a program where we talk about the power of identity and what that means for you.
[00:22:11.000]And so we really want you to own your experience as a Husker. We have a number hundreds in fact of student organizations that you can join and so how do you own your leadership and your leadership experience on campus.
[00:22:23.000]We want to help you focus on well being, we know that college and the transition can be stressful. Hopefully it's a good stress and it's an exciting stress.
[00:22:32.000]But we also know that finals come around right and different parts of the semester are pretty challenging and so we want to make sure that we are giving you the resources while you live on campus, to really be successful in navigating stress and thinking
[00:22:45.000]about who you can talk to and thinking about how you can just be a well rounded student and a well rounded human being, you know we have multiple opportunities for you to connect on campus.
[00:22:58.000]We want you to engage so we don't want you to just come here and and live in the halls and get a degree, those are very important things we do want you to live on campus and of course we want you to get a degree, but we want you to think about what does
[00:23:09.000]it look like to be a really engaged citizen of the campus, or a really engaged student leader, you know, what does that mean and maybe everyone doesn't aspire to be the president of an organization but every one of you can lead in your own way and so
[00:23:25.000]whether we are engaging you with a learning community or we are engaging you through programming in the halls or through the rec center on campus or getting you to other opportunities on campus a Husker football game, whatever that might be.
[00:23:38.000]We want to make sure that you are fully using utilizing your experience on campus. These are going to be a really really special for years of your life.
[00:23:46.000]And so we want to make sure that it is a special to you as, as we hope it can be.
[00:23:52.000]And then finally relationships so as you live with us.
[00:23:55.000]You, some of you may be sharing rooms for the first time in your life, others, this may be old hat to you.
[00:24:02.000]But you will likely be sharing a room with somebody that's unrelated to you. And that might mean getting to know boundary is talking about boundaries, how do we converse with each other.
[00:24:13.000]What if this person has different perspectives than I do. And we really want to help you through that process you will also build really strong relationships with your resident assistants your peer mentors those folks who work at the desk and our professional
[00:24:25.000]staff who live on campus and among all of your friends and organizational members. And so we really want you to, to help you navigate those conversations.
[00:24:40.000]So we do that through the Nebraska residential experience. And so that is unique to living on campus. So we intentionally try to help students find community and to think about what are the communities, you want to be a part of here maybe that's your
[00:24:53.000]residence hall floor maybe that's the building of your residence hall. Maybe that's an opportunity to be involved in your hall government or residence hall Association and a great opportunity for you to be involved.
[00:25:05.000]So that's a big portion of what we do. We also want to help you thrive academically academics don't stop when you leave the classroom. We don't want you to come back to the hall and be lectured again that's not what we're aiming for.
[00:25:17.000]But we want to provide the resources, the study spaces the technology, and all of those pieces where we can to help you be able to make a clean transition from your academic experience into your living and learning environment in your residence hall to
[00:25:32.000]wear those don't seem like two distinct experiences.
[00:25:36.000]And additionally, you'll have support from staff so as I mentioned, we do have resident assistants who live on each floor in our section of our residence halls.
[00:25:45.000]We have LC peer mentors who interact with staff, students who are involved in our learning communities. In addition, we have full time, professional staff members who have been trained in students development and those leadership skills and they live
[00:26:02.000]in the building as well and then we have a variety of staff at higher levels that also are involved in the residential experience to help you feel success, feel supported find success and be connected to the campus into the Residence Life community.
[00:26:20.000]So a little bit into kind of the nitty gritty of things that you might really want to be knowing about tonight. So when it comes to meal plans as you know if you live on campus as a first year student you're generally required to have a meal plan.
[00:26:34.000]There are two different pieces we want to really talk about and that's your Meal Swipes and your dining dollars. So Meal Swipes are those that are simply swiping your ID card at one of our dining facilities on campus, you would get depending on the package
[00:26:49.000]that you choose you would get a certain number of those per week, and they start over on Sundays. Each week, and so these are not necessarily good at some of the vendors in the Union for example or some other vendors for some they may work for others
[00:27:04.000]they won't.
[00:27:06.000]And then we have dining dollars and that's basically a declining imbalance account.
[00:27:12.000]You start with the amount that's indicated by your meal plan and you can always add additional, and those can be used anywhere that a meal swipe can so those can also be used at other various locations Starbucks and a couple of other places on campus,
[00:27:27.000]so that you can enjoy those dining opportunities as well. So for our first year meal plans we have four choices we have the big red which is 18 swipes a week and 200 dining dollars for the academic year.
[00:27:42.000]We have the platinum, which is 14 Meal Swipes and $600. We have the diamond which is 12 Meal Swipes and $1,000 and then we have our Sapphire plan which has our lowest number of meals at 10 Neil swipes, but our highest number of declining balance or dining
[00:27:59.000]dollars at 1400.
[00:28:02.000]There is a period of time in which you can switch your meal plans. And so that is something that will, you will receive information on when you arrive to campus.
[00:28:12.000]I believe it's a two week period in which you are able to change that.
[00:28:17.000]And so, you would be able to do that if you get here and in the first few days you feel like, I don't know, maybe I wish I had more dining dollars or maybe I wish I had more meals, so you'll want to watch your, your email and our website really closely
[00:28:30.000]for those details and our dietary needs, we are able to meet dietary needs we actually have a dietitian on our staff that students can actually meet with individually if necessary to ensure that our dining centers are able to provide the meals that they
[00:28:45.000]need, as well as we do have different areas in our dining hall so in the fall we will be opening at some point in the fall we will be opening a gluten free option.
[00:28:57.000]We that is under construction as we speak. but we also have allergen
[00:29:04.000]kitchen areas that are sensitive to allergens. and some of our halls already.
[00:29:13.000]So move in. We last year experimented with a new way of doing move in and so as you move in and you're getting excited to be on campus. We have moved to what we call a curbside moving process.
[00:29:25.000]And what that means is that we basically you will start at the bottom of any sports complex.
[00:29:33.000]You will check in, receive the information you need to get to your room and your building, and then you will be sent over to your building in a timely fashion to help prevent traffic jams.
[00:29:44.000]And once you were at your building your crew will unload your car you and your, your parents or you and your students will go park your car, and by the time you get back the items that you have unloaded will be in your room ready for you to begin the
[00:29:57.000]unpacking process and and things of that nature.
[00:30:01.000]So, again, moving will occur August 16 through 19 2021. And that is a pretty strict deadline, we're not able to really accommodate moves before after that.
[00:30:13.000]And so, You are limited to a single vehicle in terms of the curbside moving so sure other vehicles could come but they wouldn't be able to go through that curbside moving process so you'd want to make sure anything you want the crew to unload is in one
[00:30:29.000]single vehicle.
[00:30:30.000]You're moving times will be emailed to you on August 2 of 2021 for you to be able to prepare for travel and, and those sorts of pieces. And of course if you have any questions now or later about your move in time.
[00:30:46.000]Move in time specifically after August 2 but any other details you can always email this housing at ul. edu email address and we'll be happy to address those concerns.
[00:30:59.000]So with that, that is a brief overview we are opening it up to questions so I think Jordan is going to moderate the questions for us and we will do our best to answer them if we're not able to answer them here we will make sure to get those answers to
[00:31:12.000]Rachel so that we are able to get those to you.
[00:31:27.000]Sorry about that, having a few technical issues with my camera turning on. Um, so Dustin you and just focused a little bit on meal plans and things like that and we have a few questions related to those things, um, could you talk a little bit more specifically
[00:31:41.000]in terms of the dining dollars. And are they, you know amount some per year is that divided by semester and do, does that balance for all over.
[00:31:50.000]Yeah, absolutely. So, great question. The meal plans Meal Swipes are per week. So any unused Meal Swipes and on Saturday evening.
[00:32:04.000]And so you would lose those Meal Swipes if you didn't use them on a weekly basis. And so it's kind of it's probably pretty important for you to kind of think about how many meals realistically Am I going to eat in the dining center, so that you can sign
[00:32:17.000]up for what makes the most economic sense for you. The dining dollar amount shown on the slide are per year so for example for the 18 200 plan 18 weekly mail swipes, and you do those, and you can scan a total of three times per meal period.
[00:32:34.000]So, whether it's a breakfast breakfast period, the lunch period or the dinner period, you can swipe up to three times.
[00:32:42.000]And so, that is important to know the dining dollars are per year so on the 18 200 plan. That's 100 dining dollars per semester fall and spring.
[00:32:55.000]And so that is really important for you to know.
[00:32:59.000]The other thing with your Meal Swipes is that you can use one meal swipe per period in a herpes market, which is one of our kind of market stores convenience stores that does have some food items, and you can do that in the form of a meal exchange.
[00:33:17.000]And so that is where you would see those dining dollars so 18 meals per week they expire on Saturday evening, and then the dollar amount for the declining dollars is per semester, and kind of going along with for anyone who's interested in when facilities
[00:33:36.000]are open or what that might look like. Several of the different places Dustin mentioned all those hours are available on our website. If you want to check that out.
[00:33:43.000]It'll reflect summer hours now but they'll have those pieces later.
[00:33:47.000]Um, so, Dustin for those who may not have received the room assignment yet, or who may be waiting to assign, can you talk a little bit more about what that process is going to look like.
[00:33:59.000]Yeah, so contracts is actively working with students through their contracted window, so the period of time in which you were sent an email or your student was sent an email, and so that goes roughly through the end of June.
[00:34:15.000]Once that is over any remaining folks who either didn't receive a time based on when they may have signed their contract or haven't selected a room, yet they will be manually assigned by the contracts team.
[00:34:28.000]And so, that is kind of where we are. If you're not sure if you are your student has received their time, you can always email that housing@unl.edu email address and say hey I'm not sure when my room selection date and time is can you let me know.
[00:34:44.000]And if you haven't received it and it's going to be a manual assignment, they will reply and let you know that those happen in July, and then you would find out shortly after that what your room assignment was, and then again on August 2 you would get
[00:34:59.000]your date and time for move in.
[00:35:02.000]And speaking of event times, what would happen if, you know, I couldn't make it for some reason for my son move in time, after I received that date, what would be that process or what could we do to kind of accommodate that.
[00:35:15.000]Yeah, so the best thing to do if that's the case is to email housing@ul.edu and explain your situation. I will say, unfortunately, we are very very limited in the number of exceptions, we can make and the reasons we can make exceptions and the reason
[00:35:31.000]for that is generally we are working with a company they have a specific number of folks who can help, and who can make the process run smoothly. And so, we also have things to pay attention to like traffic patterns on campus for emergency eat grass,
[00:35:47.000]capacities and how many elevators will be available and so really it's designed to help things go smoothly. But if you do feel that you may have a reason for an exception, go ahead and send an email to that email address and somebody will work through
[00:36:00.000]that and let you know if we can accommodate a change.
[00:36:05.000]Excellent. And there's a few programs such as the engineering readiness academies already recruitment first customer that move in early portion students kind of approach what that process would look like.
[00:36:16.000]Yeah, your best first step with that is to talk with the program. So, whatever program it is that you believe has early move in talk with them, they actually provide us the list of approved students.
[00:36:27.000]And once we have that list we will communicate with those students and give them specific directions.
[00:36:35.000]And so we've had a few questions about the dining dollars.
[00:36:39.000]Is there a good spot that students should maybe go look to see where that money could be spent. And then also is that money kind of similar to you know flex money that you've seen in other locations or, you know, different things, such as that as well.
[00:36:52.000]Yeah.
[00:36:53.000]There are a couple of places you can use the dining dollars it's important to know that Dining Dollars do transfer transfer from fall to spring, but at the end of spring you lose whatever you haven't used.
[00:37:05.000]So, you have the academic year to use them and they will roll over, otherwise they will expire.
[00:37:11.000]You can use dining dollars through the dining centers Husker heroes Hermes markets and brute awakening coffee shop. In addition to that you are able to use dining dollars at the Selleck food court.
[00:37:24.000]Once it reopens. And then about in Nebraska union food vendors that are participating in the program in order to do those your student would want to download the transact mobile ordering app which they can totally do after their life that is not something
[00:37:37.000]they need to do before they get here, and we will have information available for them to be able to know how to do that.
[00:37:44.000]And they can order through those on the mobile ordering app and then they show up to pick up their items when they're ready. And this information is all as well as the frequently asked question on dining dollars available on our website.
[00:37:56.000]And so, we will drop that link in the chat. And that will help you get some more information there on the dining website and also has hours. What's open and explains the meal plans, it talks about the menus.
[00:38:11.000]It talks about mobile ordering and our sustainability efforts in the halls and so it's kind of a wealth of information. One thing to note is our fall hours will likely be finalized closer to opening. And so those may not quite be posted yet but rest assured,
[00:38:24.000]we have early morning breakfast. We have lunch, we have dinner and then we also have late night service so we are open for the vast majority of the 24 hour period in a day.
[00:38:36.000]Excellent. And as you talked about that availability is there just, you know, a couple dining centers, what are some of those options that are available as far as dining halls and different locations.
[00:38:44.000]Yeah, so we cluster our dining centers around what we what we refer to as our complexes. So for example, we would consider able Santos, a complex and so in April, there is a dining hall.
[00:39:03.000]hall there as well. Now it is it is more of a food court and less of an actual traditional dining hall that will reopen at some point later in the fall semester. When we think about Harper.
[00:39:15.000]Harper SRAM Smith and the village. There's the dining center and Harper, for those students now students can go to any dining hall, so we have four kind of traditional dining halls.
[00:39:27.000]And then we have our select dining hall where folks can go and we'll be able to go once it reopens, but students can go to any of them, they are not quote unquote stuck, going to the one that's in their complex, so if they are closer to the catheter dining
[00:39:43.000]center because of their classes or engagement on campus. They can certainly slip into the catheter swipe and eat.
[00:39:51.000]Excellent. And just as a quick note, I know Rachel had put in a quick note about amenities that are available in the residence halls in the chat for everyone there.
[00:40:02.000]In addition to that amenities chart that they have the kind of details all those different pieces there is a suggested packing list available on the website.
[00:40:09.000]And so if anyone's curious Dustin's reference a lot of great resources, a lot of good things for rooms but wines, make sure that you have all those things as well.
[00:40:19.000]And so, kind of, sorry.
[00:40:23.000]I was gonna say I know this is a lot of links to keep track of so when I send my follow up email tomorrow I will just like copy and paste essentially a list of all the links that we've mentioned tonight so that way you can access those again in the future.
[00:40:38.000]Perfect. Thank you, Rachel.
[00:40:41.000]So Dustin going back a little bit to move in.
[00:40:44.000]When students receive that email on August 2 with that information is that just kind of a general timeline is that a specific time What does that kind of more look like and how should that be kind of looked at as well.
[00:40:56.000]Absolutely. They will actually get a specific time, and a specific date so for example, depending on when that building is scheduled to be loaded and by the curbside moving crew.
[00:41:07.000]You, let's just and this is an example this is not a fact, in terms of the hall I'm going to mention, but you could get something that says you are slated to move into April Hall.
[00:41:18.000]On August 17 at 9:30am.
[00:41:22.000]So that's kind of what you're going to see and there will be some further instructions there about reminding folks to start at the divan the center and then you'll kind of be lined up in your cars and released on on time schedules to make sure that we're
[00:41:35.000]not blocking roads and that sort of piece.
[00:41:38.000]Excellent.
[00:41:40.000]And then switching back. I know I'm someone who's always excited about you know the dining halls as well and those types of things. Um, is there anything specific.
[00:41:50.000]As far as like availability is it the exact same food every dining hall or is that a little bit different. And then just kind of looking to say what might those offerings and look like if someone were to go around.
[00:42:00.000]Yeah, that's a great question. So if you want to kind of get a sense of some of our offerings on the dining website you can actually see them in us that are currently offered, it will tell you they are a little bit less robust during the summer, because
[00:42:13.000]we have very few students that are on campus and it's mostly serving our conference population, but essentially each dining hall has a five week rotation of offerings meals that they offer and they do add some extra little things in there so it's not
[00:42:26.000]exactly the same meal every five weeks.
[00:42:30.000]Most dining halls have multiple stations and options for students to choose from.
[00:42:35.000]Each of our halls, the menus are different so what you may come and get a catheter today might be very different than what's being served at Harper.
[00:42:44.000]There is, you know, there's probably a 40 to 50% similarity in terms of what they're offering but that leaves kind of the other half is up to that dining hall.
[00:42:52.000]Also, each of our dining halls typically has kind of a specialty or something unique about them. So for example, in catheter we have an international station where you might get things like Thai stir fry or Indian or you know a variety Pad Thai those
[00:43:08.000]sorts of pieces.
[00:43:09.000]If you go over to Harper or one of the things that's really exciting for this fall is they're installing the smokehouse in that dining hall and so smoked meats will be plentiful.
[00:43:19.000]If that is your thing, you know, and some of our one of our dining halls has an allergen in particular has a specific allergen aware area so that if you really have some significant allergens you can be rest assured that the food is safe for you to eat.
[00:43:34.000]eat. And so no it is not the same food everywhere. Everywhere is a little bit different, you know. Now, that doesn't mean that this week Catherine has pizza and maybe next week harbor house pizza, like that may happen.
[00:43:48.000]But the reality is, there should be enough difference to kind of keep you satisfied.
[00:43:55.000]Wonderful. And, you know, we know students are obviously busy and so with all those you know different dining options with, you know, all the pieces but it's the dining hall the other options you've shared what might have to go option look like for students
[00:44:08.000]who, you know, maybe needs to do something a little bit quicker what can they do as far as take out with any of our dining halls. Yeah, so we are still working through what our final policy is going to be as you can imagine with dining during combet.
[00:44:20.000]We became a little bit less strict about how much students took out of the house.
[00:44:35.000]How many boxes of food that we are still working on so it will be that information will be readily available by fall.
[00:44:43.000]But rest assured, they'll be able to at least get a full meal.
[00:44:49.000]Excellent.
[00:44:52.000]And so, as you're kind of talking through those different pieces talking through meal options do these things to work with for athletes, you know if we have a student athlete if we have someone does their meal plan also apply to those things or how does
[00:45:05.000]that kind of work.
[00:45:07.000]Yeah, we. That's a great question we would encourage your student athlete to check with their coach and look at the specific guidelines for their athletic program.
[00:45:17.000]We work very closely with athletics, and we have worked out different scenarios with teams based on their needs. And so rather than try to give you the correct information and guess I would say check with their team.
[00:45:29.000]If they don't, if that doesn't help them then they can surely send an email to housing@ul.edu and, and we can do some background work to figure that out as well.
[00:45:39.000]So in one more quick question before we transition.
[00:45:42.000]But when you talked about Meal Swipes, you mentioned three meals a day. Could you kind of or three swipes, or three sweats per meal. Could you kind of explain what that means a little bit further.
[00:45:53.000]Yeah, so students have the option if they would like to, for example, they could swipe in a guest so let's say you know I am really I become really good friends with somebody who lives off campus, they don't have a meal plan but we want to grab lunch
[00:46:07.000]after class and I don't want them to have to pay for it, you can swipe in a friend, so that would be one additional slide.
[00:46:14.000]That's really the you know the kind of the big purpose right now, of the swipes there. There is some flexibility with to go meals but again we haven't set those decisions those regulations yet for the fall so I hesitate to give too much there.
[00:46:28.000]But we also we do cap it at three because we want to make sure that students have enough meals throughout the week that they are able to be throughout the week and so that's why there's only three per meal period.
[00:46:40.000]Perfect. So transitioning back to move in, Dustin in the student or to want to move in earlier, saying, you know, for travel reasons for you know work for people who are helping them.
[00:46:51.000]What is that process of someone wanting to request what that earlier time would look like and how would they go about that.
[00:46:57.000]Yeah, you know, kind of, as I mentioned earlier, I think we are going to be a lot less able to accommodate early movements, or, or changing of appointment times based on getting the buildings loaded in, and being able to perform an effective and efficient
[00:47:15.000]curbside moving process. But if you believe that you have a reason that that you should be exempt. Just go ahead and email housing and you ll.edu and kind of fully explain your situation.
[00:47:26.000]And then our staff will get back with you. I will tell you it is it is pretty unlikely and it would probably have to be a pretty dire reason.
[00:47:38.000]But, you know, I can't give you a list everybody's situation is different and so that email and giving full details as much as you can, will be really important as our team, kind of tries to accommodate where we can.
[00:47:53.000]Excellent and you referenced curbside Could you give a little bit more detail about you know what is the curbside moving crew and what does that process kind of look like as someone comes to the residence halls.
[00:48:02.000]Absolutely. So we have partnered with a company called university student services that company will come to Lincoln on those three days that we are moving in the 16th 17th 18th and 19th so four days that we're doing move in.
[00:48:18.000]And what will happen is they will meet cars that the hall.
[00:48:22.000]There's a large number of them, and they are paid and contracted through the USS company.
[00:48:28.000]And they will unload your items into basically huge really big laundry carts is what we typically use or dollies.
[00:48:37.000]And then you will have the ability to go park your car they will take everything out that you want out, you'll go park your car, they will physically take it to your room unload it from the carts put it in your room.
[00:48:48.000]And then when you arrive to your room, you will be able to simply unpack and get settled and.
[00:48:55.000]So, that is that is part of it I will tell you.
[00:48:59.000]They are not able to do multiple cars, you know they're not able to, you know, arrange things in a particular way that you might like them, but they are trained to be movers, so they do get some training, they are not just showing up for the first time
[00:49:16.000]having never, you know, been trained how to appropriately move folks and if you feel more comfortable staying at sit having your student or someone else, stay with them and walk with them up to the room because you might feel more comfortable with your
[00:49:30.000]belongings you can certainly do that.
[00:49:32.000]We would just need somebody in the car to be able to move the car immediately so we can keep the line moving.
[00:49:38.000]Absolutely. And you talked about different items if someone's coming from out of state. Are they able to ship things in advance, and if so kind of what's that process look like as well.
[00:49:49.000]Yeah, we, we are generally unable to take shipments.
[00:49:53.000]Prior to move in. And so the reason for that is we honestly have very small space to store items, and you'd be surprised I think how many folks would take advantage of that.
[00:50:04.000]If they have the opportunity which why wouldn't you write like that makes it makes logical sense in some ways, but we are typically unable to do that what I would encourage you to do is if you want to ship some things.
[00:50:16.000]Wait until after they have actually moved in, and then ship the items you know and it might be a week after move in that they get it, but then it'll be taken, they'll pick it up in a timely manner and that means that we can continue to serve all students
[00:50:31.000]and not just a few who may have a lot of a lot of materials.
[00:50:36.000]And could you refresh us. one second on any of those programs that may have a an early move in time and where this to reach out to get that additional information.
[00:50:47.000]Yeah, so in general if your student is part of one of the approved early moving groups, they have already been notified. And so they should know that I am certain I might miss a group.
[00:50:59.000]When I say this but sorority recruitment generally will move in a little bit early. If they are an RA for us, they would move in a lot earlier for training.
[00:51:10.000]If they are in the first gen program, or. And I don't mean the first gen LC, but first, is it first Husker I believe it's called in that program they would come in early, and there's just a handful band, I believe comes in a little bit early.
[00:51:27.000]But again, they will be communicated with from their, their organization. If you believe your you are your student belong to one of those organizations, go ahead and you can either reach out to us at housing@uml.edu or probably more helpful would be to
[00:51:42.000]reach out to that club or organization because again they provide us the roster of names for us to approve those students to move in early so we wouldn't want you to show up to move in early if you're not on the roster.
[00:51:54.000]Perfect. In a few logistical questions with all that moving process, um, you mentioned moving crew is it customer that people are supposed to tip them or what does that.
[00:52:04.000]Or is that something that we should look at doing.
[00:52:07.000]We actually asked that you that you not tip them. Of course we can't tie your hands. But absolutely, there is no tip expected. so that would totally be up to you.
[00:52:18.000]We encourage not tipping these folks to get paid.
[00:52:21.000]This is actually a job for them and so it is not a volunteer opportunity.
[00:52:26.000]But again, that would probably be up to you, but it is not in any way shape or form expected.
[00:52:34.000]And then from folks traveling from out of state who might need to stay in the hotel the night before do something like that. Is it pretty easy to get a hotel or is there anything going on that by providing the challenges for that.
[00:52:45.000]Yeah, so the wonderful thing about Lincoln is Lincoln is kind of a, it's kind of a large city with a small town feel. And so we actually have an abundance of hotels.
[00:52:55.000]The other good news is there's not a Husker football game that weekend. And so there won't be a ton of them that are here for a major event like that so finding a hotel should not be a problem.
[00:53:06.000]Whether it's downtown or somewhere, a little bit further removed from campus depending on your needs and desires.
[00:53:13.000]You should have no problem finding a hotel.
[00:53:17.000]Absolutely, and the only place I would give is just be mindful if you're coming into early on, there is a Garth Brooks concert on August 14.
[00:53:24.000]And so a lot of hotels are booked, but that is several days before so just plan appropriately on that, um, there is a moving day schedule online Dustin just for kind of a point of reference for everyone if you're looking at that that doesn't give the
[00:53:39.000]specific times, but just so people can have start to plan what day they're building my go as they're doing that just want to make sure people were aware of that resource that is has been updated so that people know that information.
[00:53:51.000]And then there was a question about is the end card, they keep their room, or is that something that is not quite in that and how to keys and access to buildings work.
[00:54:01.000]Yeah. So, it's somewhat depends on the building.
[00:54:06.000]The vast majority of our buildings, you're in card will get you into the physical front door of the building. And then you will actually receive when you check in a separate card that actually gets you into your room.
[00:54:18.000]So our rooms, most of them but not all, do have the, what we call the oddity lock system which is essentially like what you would find at hotels and you dip your card in the light turns green and your door unlocks.
[00:54:30.000]And so, that is cut most places there are a few places where hard keys are still necessary and we do give them the hotkeys, even in those areas, generally speaking, you still enter the building with your ID card, but getting into your actual apartment
[00:54:46.000]or room might be with a brass key.
[00:54:49.000]And so that's kind of the system. It's also one thing for you might want to remember and help your students remember we will certainly help them remember, is because in most of our rooms, they are those hotel locks.
[00:55:03.000]When the door shuts it automatically locks. And so, If you forget that key.
[00:55:09.000]You are locked out. Now we have desks and we have at least one desk in each area that's open 24 hours so they certainly have access to get a replacement key, but it does create quite an inconvenience and that can be a learning curve for folks because
[00:55:22.000]not many of us have those on our homes.
[00:55:26.000]Definitely.
[00:55:27.000]And so some people have been already selecting rooms kind of going through that process. Is there a waitlist process they should be aware of if they didn't get the hall that they were hoping for or is their availability potentially after they move in
[00:55:39.000]and what what might those steps be if they had wanted to consider moving.
[00:55:43.000]Yeah, there are waitlist opportunities and I believe that you complete that waitlist opportunity through my read or in the housing portal within that those weightless do exist.
[00:55:55.000]I will tell you how often rooms become available and buildings is often based on the popularity of the building and the type of building.
[00:56:04.000]For example, if a student is wait listed for a single those are much more challenging to find.
[00:56:11.000]So yes, it's possible.
[00:56:14.000]After you you can put yourself on a waitlist now I believe you can also put yourself on a waitlist after you get here. We do generally have a two week freeze.
[00:56:31.000]allow folks to move and that's purely because we need to do what we call census day, which is helps us make sure that each person moved into the right room and helps us get a total number of how many people showed up, and which people did not show up
[00:56:46.000]and check in, and so there will be a freeze for a period of time. How fast folks come off the waitlist totally depends on if there's vacancies or if somebody moves in or out.
[00:56:56.000]And so it's really hard to give people an estimate of, When they might move, or if they might move.
[00:57:04.000]Definitely. And a quick clarifying item for those who have left the moving schedule you may see able north and south listed on there. That is actually referring to floors in the building, not the direction of the building.
[00:57:17.000]And so this is going to seem a little counterintuitive so just bear with me but if you weren't able south. You are considered in the top six floors. So, starting at 13 and down.
[00:57:27.000]And then if you are able north, you are at the bottom six floors and so you'd be up to four seven there so eight through 13 is April South one through seven would be able North seems a little odd we just want to make sure you have that information, knowing
[00:57:41.000]that Rachel just posted all that great movement information out there as well.
[00:57:45.000]Um, so you talked a little bit about some of the amenities that are available what that looks like in terms of dining halls, convenience stores all of that.
[00:57:54.000]What does that look like for a student might be living on East Campus.
[00:57:57.000]Knowing that a lot of times, you know, they're curious, but what else is out there. Yeah, we love our East Campus Community East Campus is truly beautiful.
[00:58:08.000]It's just a gym on our campus massing Gail is the primary residence hall although we also have love Hall, which is our cooperative. Both of those are out there, there is a dining Center at near mass and Gail in the Nebraska union on East Campus.
[00:58:25.000]And that works the same as any of our other dining halls, so they can use their swipes they also have late night there at that particular dining hall as well so students on this campus have availability for food in the evenings, other amenities that are
[00:58:40.000]out on East Campus.
[00:58:42.000]His campus also has its own library, so that's a wonderful opportunity for students massing Gail is one is our only Hall I believe at this point that also has a fire pit that they can work with staff to use so that's kind of cool, especially in the cooler
[00:58:57.000]months of fall before we really hit winter.
[00:59:03.000]You know I think parking is a little less challenging on East Campus. I would also say, highlight the Nebraska union that's on East Campus. It just got a huge renovation in the last year and it is a completely beautiful space and has multiple opportunities
[00:59:20.000]for students to engage over there, depending on what your students academic program is a large number of our agricultural programs are located on East Campus as well as some other academic programs.
[00:59:35.000]There's also a bus line that gets from East Campus to City campus. And so when you're when and if your students needs to come to City Campus they don't have to drive, they can ride the bus if that's if that's an option they want to exercise.
[00:59:49.000]Excellent. Kind of while we're on amenities, how, how would students get mail sent to them and then also how do they pick that up. What does that kind of look like.
[00:59:57.000]Yeah, so each, each room, generally, and this could vary by bike facility but generally each room gets a mailbox.
[01:00:06.000]So, for many of our students that might mean they need to have a conversation with their roommate about what what male pickup looks like and if somebody can pick up other somebody else's mail and where do they leave it and those sorts of things but generally
[01:00:18.000]speaking, there is a mailbox, and usually it's near the front desk, but not always.
[01:00:24.000]And students will have that mailbox assigned to them to find the address of your student if you go on to the individual hall that your student signs up to live in those addresses are on the website, and then you would insert your students room number
[01:00:37.000]once you know that and it'll even show you kind of where to do that. If it's a package, it would likely be held behind the front desk they would get a notification saying they have a package and they just bring their ID to the front desk and they can
[01:00:50.000]pick up their package during package hours, so that's that's pretty much how our mail works.
[01:00:56.000]We have our mail is USPS mail right and then we also accept things from UPS, FedEx DHL all kind of your standard carriers Amazon, all those good things.
[01:01:09.000]Absolutely and you reference the web pages for each residence hall and I just wanted to highlight on there they do show the different room layouts. And so if you're looking for measurements if you're looking for things like that those measurements are
[01:01:19.000]available online so you can have all those information pieces as well.
[01:01:24.000]Um, so we've talked about a lot of different things that you know people can do and kind of what that looks like a square.
[01:01:30.000]Dustin. Is there a list of activities and things going on on campus during that first week or during moving that students should kind of look forward to and kind of dig into.
[01:01:38.000]Yeah. So, in terms of rough life, and what we do in the residence halls.
[01:01:44.000]We generally have a couple of large scale events during that week as part of what's called Big Red welcome. And so we will have block parties during that first week that students are living with us and those will be well advertised when students arrive
[01:01:59.000]for move in.
[01:02:00.000]We will also have the first floor meetings. And I would encourage you and inspire students to really attend those four meetings they are super important.
[01:02:10.000]I know sometimes they may not seem like the most pressing thing.
[01:02:14.000]When there are so many new things you can do, but it will really help your student get acclimated to living in the halls they're generally about half an hour maybe an hour at the most, and they're usually pretty fun and helps you get to know other members
[01:02:27.000]of your floor community outside of that generally during that week we may have some other individual array programs, but we really try to focus on getting students to the big red welcome events because those are really to help students on a bigger scale,
[01:02:41.000]get connected to the campus and so there's some really cool things we do for students, for example, taking the, the in picture in on the football field doing the tunnel walk.
[01:02:54.000]And then lots of other things that aren't even related to sports, so if that's not your gig.
[01:02:59.000]There are lots of things that you can do so.
[01:03:02.000]I'm wondering Rachel if we might be able to send folks, the website that includes the big red welcome information because that'll probably be your best resources they get that updated.
[01:03:15.000]Perfect. And speaking of things to send everyone, we have a few questions on the waitlist. And so what we will do is we will detail those steps out and make sure that that's included in that follow up email.
[01:03:24.000]We know there's a lot of information coming tonight and so we want to make sure that you have that information to make sure you have those different pieces as well.
[01:03:33.000]And so with that, Dustin you talked a little bit about locks and rooms and things like that, or individual bedrooms, like for instance in a suite or an apartment.
[01:03:41.000]Are those locked, do they actually have locks on them or is that something that you know isn't available.
[01:03:47.000]They do. And so, the type of lock might be different depending on where you live, whether it's a hard key or another swipe lock but yes, I can't think of a facility where we don't have the bedrooms able to be locked.
[01:04:03.000]Jordan unless you know of one but I'm pretty certain that's not the case.
[01:04:07.000]No, I wouldn't fully agree with you on that.
[01:04:11.000]Another question was is wondering, I'm in for instance a four bedroom suite or even a two bedroom suite. Are they able to put multiple TVs so each person had or TV in their room or what that looks like as well, is that a possibility.
[01:04:24.000]So I.
[01:04:26.000]Yes, it is a possibility. I would encourage in bedrooms I would encourage roommates to talk to each other and see if you really need to TVs.
[01:04:36.000]I think when you see the size of the rooms while they are a double size and they can accommodate two folks comfortably.
[01:04:42.000]Two battling TVs could be very loud, and, and, you know, so you may want to figure that out with your roommate, but yes multiple TVs are available. We use a service called Apogee that's not something you really need to remember but we do have cable, that's
[01:04:59.000]essentially our cable provider, as well as we have a really robust residence hall Movie Channel where they often get movies before they're released to the public on TV well I don't even do they do DVDs anymore.
[01:05:14.000]On DVDs, or however that's done now.
[01:05:17.000]And so that's really cool and the students actually get students get to vote on those movies each month and that's done through our Residents Association so plenty of entertainment.
[01:05:27.000]With each student each student can also stream Apogee on their computers. So, as long as they're on campus. So anywhere on campus on our Wi Fi.
[01:05:37.000]So if they want to go out on the green and watch.
[01:05:41.000]I don't even know what the cool kids are watching these days, but they want to go watch something they can lay down on the green under a tree and connect to Wi Fi and watch away.
[01:05:51.000]And they also get a certain number hours of DVR per student account. And so they can also do that as well. So, I think, I think we have the entertainment covered.
[01:06:02.000]I'm sure the students might disagree, in the sense that, you know, we don't have Hulu and Netflix and HBO max but they can run them on the Wi Fi.
[01:06:12.000]So, and so another kind of more kind of figuring things out request is if students are, you know, they want to lock their bed but they're not feeling comfortable, is there a way to get a guardrail or ladder or something like that to be able to you know
[01:06:26.000]feel more comfortable up there. Yeah. So, um, we actually encourage students to put in that request, and they can do that.
[01:06:35.000]I believe the ethics it put in a request to have that done prior to arriving.
[01:06:43.000]The reason for that is if they do it prior to arrival we are you not always but most of the time, able to get it done before they move in.
[01:06:50.000]If not, they can also put it in when they get here it just might take a couple of days with the volume of requests we get for it to be installed. But yes, they do not need to buy their own.
[01:07:00.000]We will provide that they just need to put in a maintenance requests. And there should be a link to the maintenance requests off of our housing website, you know, That should be fix it, that url.edu master kind of submitting all of that as well.
[01:07:12.000]That's your kind of submitting all of that as well. Um, and then some people have been selecting rooms that are curious they haven't found floor plans.
[01:07:20.000]Is there a reason that they aren't finding floor plans and what that looks like. There is and so within the portal system we don't have four plans you may be able to, I'm not sure if you google if you can find outdated floor plans for us or not.
[01:07:34.000]We didn't make this decision lightly. We know that some institutions do list their floor plans for safety and security we felt that it was really important that we not have those out.
[01:07:45.000]Because if they get released if you think about the world we live in. There could just be opportunity for folks to see those that really don't need to know where our students live.
[01:07:55.000]We don't need them, tracking down our students in the halls, we don't need any of that sort of thing. And so it's really for safety and security. If students have questions specifically say I want to know.
[01:08:08.000]Where's the bathroom on the floor, right for the building I'm living in, they can certainly reach out to us and we will answer those questions they can call the red Life Office or they can email that housing@unl.edu email address.
[01:08:21.000]We are pretty doggone quick about getting back on those during the workweek, and we are happy to engage and answer those questions.
[01:08:29.000]But we just feel it's in the best safety interest of all of our students not to have that live on a website,
[01:08:37.000]and switching gears slightly I believe this is one of our last questions here. So, Dustin I think we ought to answer this one, including Rachel now.
[01:08:46.000]But what is your favorite thing or things to order from any of the dining areas.
[01:08:52.000]My favorite thing. There's two of them. I am partial to the international station in Katherine dining. I absolutely love when they do the stir fry.
[01:09:03.000]And then the other thing I'm going to cheat and say to the other is when they. It's also usually in catheter I'm not sure if they do it in other dining locations on campus.
[01:09:14.000]When they have Indian food.
[01:09:16.000]I think we do a terrific job at both of those are chef in that and international area is just phenomenal. I can't say enough good things.
[01:09:27.000]Absolutely. I will echo the Indian food the tikka masala is something that will track across campus and all types of other four. And then I also love their french toast and all varieties of that so full transparency and Rachel I'm not sure if you had
[01:09:41.000]a favorite as well you want to add an ideal my all time favorite is not too far I will run across campus for Nacho bar, and today was not too far in chapter so it was the best day ever.
[01:09:55.000]The case though is incredible, but it's, it's so many different varieties of Nacho toppings. I don't think it ever gets old. Great news, and a super extra cheat and say two things that just came to mind one is incredibly looking forward to the smokehouse
[01:10:13.000]in Harper. I am a meat eater and for me that's super super exciting. And then my other cheek, it is back in catheter.
[01:10:21.000]The desert case, our dessert folks are also I mean all of our dining folks are phenomenal but just the cheesecake and the brownies and just and they have, it's just all good.
[01:10:35.000]Now I'm very.
[01:10:37.000]My first question is how many different types of potatoes, can I get. I think if I have two or more and it is, and it's not not over day. That's the perfect meal for me.
[01:10:48.000]Yeah.
[01:10:50.000]Awesome.
[01:10:53.000]We have.
[01:10:54.000]All right, perfect timing to you I feel as though they they nailed the timing on these questions so nice word.
[01:11:04.000]I would just as we close out again I want to welcome you to the Nebraska.
[01:11:09.000]You know this is a very special place as you will soon find out if you have not already been here.
[01:11:15.000]Again, it's a testament to you and your students abilities both to for your students to have the opportunity to come to Nebraska and in higher education.
[01:11:25.000]We really want to partner with you and rez life really is not just a place to sleep. We want to help your students succeed and be successful here and when they when they leave I know we're already talking about when they leave and you're probably like
[01:11:37.000]what in the world. Those four years go by so fast but they are some of the most amazing years of your life so there's anything near the staff and housing indicting can do for you, please don't hesitate to reach out.
[01:11:49.000]That's why we're here and that's why we do what we do.
[01:11:56.000]Connecting Dustin Do you want to give a quick plug on how they can get ahold of you before we close out. Yeah. So, right here on that we have some contact information really that housing email address, it gets kind of sent to the people that it needs
[01:12:09.000]to get to so that you get one central contacts and you don't have to try and bounce all over, and try and find us. You can also find us on social media we are responsive there and then that phone number goes to our main desk and again, they can get you
[01:12:22.000]to the people that you need.
[01:12:24.000]And so, you know, if you need to talk to me and you asked for me, they'll get you to.
[01:12:32.000]Fantastic. Thank you so much. We are about time to close out so thank you so much to Dustin in Georgia and for being with us this evening for your time and for your expertise.
[01:12:41.000]I know it's much appreciated on our end as well as the participants so thank you for that. And I hope you'll join us in the future we're going to be speaking with Fraternity and Sorority Life next week, another a lot of questions about recruitment and
[01:12:54.000]what that process looks like so that would be a great time to get those questions answered. And then we'll be having a presentation from a couple folks involved with the first generation student experience and support resources on campus.
[01:13:05.000]The following week so the full schedule is available in this PowerPoint I will send that out to you again at the end of our session tonight or tomorrow, and I hope you have a great rest of your week.
[01:13:16.000]Thank you for joining us this evening.

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