Students Evacuate The Towers Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic
Words by Lauren Pires
Graphic by Aspasia Celia Tsampas
Students who moved out of The Towers, the student dormitory at The City College of New York, still might need to pay every penny of their rent for Spring 2020. Although so much chaos has emerged due to the COVID-19 virus that has essentially plagued countries all over the world, the impact this has had on university students and staff extends beyond what many may realize.
As we all know, classes for students of all grade levels have been either cancelled or are now taken virtually via Blackboard or Zoom. This was a necessity in order to alleviate the rapid spreading of COVID-19.
This has caused many students who reside in student living facilities to return to their homes to self-quarantine with their families. As the number of cases increase by the hundreds each day, hospital beds all over New York City are filled with sick patients.
With all the rooms in hospitals filled, New York State intends to use CUNY campus facilities such as The Towers as quarantine sites, hospital beds, and accommodations for public health workers, as well as other university buildings across the city.
As of March 28th, 2020, the state has taken control of the dorm rooms and, as of now, the apartments will not be available until Fall 2020, meaning no summer residency can be obtained. What does this mean for students who are still at The Towers? They shall be relocated to another dormitory if they have no other living arrangements for the semester. In an email sent to residents of The Towers, the office said “We are waiting on CUNY to provide us with information regarding the refunds. We will follow-up once we have their information.”
Even though The Towers were unable to provide refunds as of yet, the apartment complex has provided ease of mind in many other instances. With thorough weekly updates, residents know everything that their offices are enduring.
During these hard times, it’s difficult to judge what the right path forward is, especially when everything occurs so rapidly and suddenly. The Towers had just a few days to completely evacuate the dormitories and relocate students to another dorm. It is not definite that payment will be required for these next few months, but students who lived in The Towers in early spring should continuously check their email for updates.
“We have been more concerned with everyone’s well-being than with payments for April,” The Towers said in another email.
