Students urge officials to alter residency requirement

August 2, 2020

File Photo by Tyara Estrada | Photographer

University spokeswoman Crystal Nosal said officials notified students about the reduced cost through their eBill.

Updated: Aug. 3, 2020 at 8:54 p.m.

After most students’ housing plans were canceled for the fall semester, students are requesting that officials change GW’s on-campus residency requirement.

The District requires students to live in on-campus housing for two years, but GW additionally requires that students live in residence halls through their third year, according to the petition. A petition, which has gathered more than 1,500 signatures as of Sunday morning, states that in conversations with officials, students are being advised against signing a lease this fall because they will be required to complete the residency requirement if the spring semester is held in person.

The petition states that students are required to live on campus for six semesters and requests that officials shorten or remove it, but undergraduates are only required to live on campus through the end of their junior year, not necessarily for six semesters in total, according to the Campus Living and Residential Education website.

“Many GW students are just finding out about this while in the process of entering into leases already, and are now left with much uncertainty,” the petition states. “GW should not force students to make decisions about their living situation during a pandemic while also having to consider how these decisions will affect their time spent at GW in the future after the pandemic.”

“These are uncertain times, and if students should decide to enter a lease that would cover the entire 2020-2021 school year, they should not be punished or affected should housing and campus reopen in Spring 2021,” the petition states.

A University spokesperson did not return a request for comment.

This post has been updated to clarify the following:
The petition requests that officials alter or cancel a six-semester residency requirement for undergraduate students, but The Hatchet confirmed that students are not required to live on campus for six complete semesters. They are only required to live on campus through the end of their junior year.