MISSOULA — The University of Montana is telling students to move out of residence halls as soon as possible due to coronavirus (COVID-19) concerns.
"We strongly encourage you, for your health and safety and that of our entire campus community, to make plans to move out of our residence halls as soon as possible,” Vice Provost Sarah Swager stated in a Sunday evening letter.
The letter goes on to state that “while we are strongly encouraging you to leave, no one will be evicted from our halls. We will find suitable accommodations.”
Students who feel that residence halls are their only option are urged to contact UM administrators as soon as possible. Students are asked to inform UM of their plans for the remainder of the semester, Click here for more information.
For those students whose best housing option at this time is to stay on campus, the university will be eliminating double occupancy and working to spread those students out.
The traditional residence hall is not conducive to social distancing as is necessary with the coronavirus, so we have students who are using communal restrooms and showers and they’re touching the same elevator elevator buttons and door handles and surfaces, UM spokeswoman Paula Short explained. "And while we have crews that are working to keep those disinfected and cleaned regularly just the density of residents in the halls is something that we need to understand and we need to plan for."
Students with questions can contact UM Housing at (406) 243-2611 for more information.
UM announced earlier this month that they will be transitioning to remote learning for the remainder of the school year.
