March 13, 2020
Dear parents and families,
I wanted to thank you for your continued patience as we are managing this difficult situation with student belongings that were left in the University’s Residence Halls and Apartments. I wanted to make sure you had seen the letter that was sent to residential students this afternoon.
Again, thank you for your understanding.
Rob Wild
Dean of Students
Dear Residential Life Students,
Thank you for your continued patience as we are working through the details of how to coordinate returning your belongings to you from the residence halls. We know this has been an extremely challenging and uncertain time for you, and I want you to know we are right here with you, as we are experiencing this highly unusual time together.
A group of university staff has been working tirelessly to develop a plan to pack, ship and/or store your individual items. This email details how we will go about categorizing items and the timeline for getting your items to you. Please pay careful attention to the information below.
Student belongings will be categorized in three different ways:
- Essential Personal Items and Academic Essentials (these include items such as medicine, prescription eyewear, travel documents, laptops, textbooks, and other academic materials that are necessary for completing spring coursework)
- Other Personal Items
- Items for Storage
Please complete the request form on the WashU Housing Portal as soon as possible to help our office complete this enormous task. In the form, you can sort your items into these categories, and provide any necessary details to describe your items. This is important because it will help us to accurately identify items to be packed, shipped, and/or stored. Any high-value personal items will be stored over the summer. We are expecting a high volume of traffic on this form, so please be patient and if you are not able to access the form initially, please a wait a short time and try again.
Since academic courses begin remotely on March 23, our goal is to have your essential academic materials and other essential personal items to you as close to March 23 as possible. This does not include items shipped to international addresses, which may take longer to arrive. We are aware that once we ship these items, some will make it to you on time and some will not. Faculty members have been asked to accommodate students, given the circumstances.
For other personal items, we are planning to ship those to you by April 15. We will send details next week about your items that will be stored. We are using a professional moving company to assist with packaging of your belongings. Fed Ex will be handling shipping and will be insuring all packages.
If you do not complete the form by 8:30 a.m. on Monday, March 16, we may not be able to ship your priority items to you in time to arrive by March 23.
We understand that this situation is likely causing you to experience stress and anxiety. These are very challenging circumstances for all of us. We have made our decisions with the safety of you and the rest of the community as our top priority and I am grateful for your continued patience and understanding. The most important thing you can do to help us manage the situation at this time is to complete the shipping form as soon as possible.
I hope to send more information tomorrow and through the weekend as needed. You should continue to reach out to our call center at 314-935-8300 or 888-319-3527 if you have questions.
Sincerely,
Kawanna Legget
Executive Director, Residential Life
Rob Wild
Dean of Students