Bridgewater, Va. – On March 11 and March 15, Residence Life hosted information sessions about the 2021-2022 housing process for students on Zoom. The sessions began with Residence Life providing an overview of the 2021-2022 housing selection process and then opening the meeting up to students for questions.  

For May term this spring, students that are enrolled in completely online courses will not have an on-campus housing option. Students who are enrolled in an in-person course will have an on-campus housing option. It is not yet known if students living on campus during May term will have roommates or not. Residence life will have more information about May term housing by the end of March 

The current plan for the 2021- 2022 school year is for all BC students to be in-person and all classes are to be in-person as well. According to residence life, there is a possibility that students will be able to go into all residence halls — which they have not been able to do this year to do COVID-19 protocols. 

Phase one of the housing process closed on March 11. Phase two, which began on March 17, is when roommates select each other. The final phase of the housing selection process is to open on April 12 and closes on April 20. During the final phase, roommates will select their housing location for next year. 

Bridgewater College has announced that the cottages will be used as quarantine housing for the upcoming 2021-2022 school year, which has left upperclassmen concerned about their housing options. 

“We’ve determined quarantine space based on the campus needs and the changing landscape of COVID-19,” said Elizabeth Howley, the assistant dean of students. “Daleville and Crimson were appropriate spaces to reserve for the current academic year, but as vaccines roll-out and infection rates lower, we anticipate needing fewer spaces for the 2021-2022 year.”

Looking ahead to the 2022-2023 academic year, Bridgewater College will be reevaluating the use of the cottages on campus and they will not be offered as a housing option for another year. 

“The Cottages will be used as quarantine space for the 2021-22 academic year, and we plan to keep them offline for a period after that to assess the best use for these spaces,” said Howley. “This assessment could take some time and would be based on the College’s residential population along with other factors. We encourage students to consider the many other housing options available to them as upperclassmen, including suites, the Towers and Stone Village.”

The decision to take the cottages offline was released shortly before students began to make housing decisions for next year. BC students have had mixed reactions to the news that the cottages will not be available as a housing option. 

“I was upset when I found out we could not live in cottages next year, because we had our plan set and we just had to apply and no cottages meant our group had to split up which was difficult to do,” said sophomore Laruen Kokoski. 

Since the cottages were the designated gender inclusive housing on campus, groups who planned to live in the cottages have to find alternative gender inclusive housing. However, the College has not yet identified where the new gender inclusive housing will be. 

“I have not yet decided where I will be living yet, as my group is gender-inclusive and the college has not yet told us what spaces they are reserving for gender-inclusive groups,” said junior Emily Schloss. 

Some upperclassmen are now concerned about getting into the housing of their choice for fear of reduced housing options. 

“One of the things I liked about Bridgewater was even though you have to live on campus all four years, you have access to good on-campus housing as an upperclassman,” said Schloss. “Now that I am an upperclassman, they have significantly reduced these options.” 

Residence Life is not expecting there to be housing shortages with the cottages no longer being  available to students. The Wampler Towers and the Crimson Inn are the most popular housing location, more so than the cottages. In addition, BC students are very interested in the second street apartments — according to residence life. The portion of housing options that may be tight are the first-year housing options.