Charges to Stay on Campus Over Spring Break

By: Anika Perry

Illustrated by: Carla Cieza Espinoza

After the abnormal three day weekends of our Spring Break last year, we finally get a normal week off! For Mar. 21-25, students will have a week off to visit family or stay on campus and hangout with friends. The cause for celebration was short-lived, however, as those who want to stay on campus are not allowed to (if they do not meet certain criteria). As if the $7,200+ students pay every year for university housing is not enough, George Fox University (GFU) is charging students $100 a week to stay in university housing over Spring Break.

The fact that students have to pay to stay over break shocked me, so I did some digging. Other than the application itself, the $100 fee is only mentioned on the Break Housing portal on the housing website where you go to apply to stay over break. A student would have no prior knowledge of the fee unless they had been through the process before or inquired to University Housing about staying over break. The fee is not mentioned when students apply for university housing and it is not listed on the Tuition and Other Costs for 2022-23 Undergraduates page or under Miscellaneous & Other Common Fees. I do not interpret this as GFU intentionally misleading students, but I think it would be beneficial for all possible fees to be initially laid out for students so they can plan ahead.

According to the University Housing website, students qualify to stay over Spring Break if they are involved in a university sport, their “home address is 200+ miles away, on or off-campus jobs requiring students to stay in town, [or they have] extenuating circumstances or illness.”

I had to know; what qualifies as an “extenuating circumstance?” Joseph Harrison, GFU’s Housing and Residence Life Operations Manager, said they “keep it open-ended on purpose because they want students to be able to apply. [...] Whether they are approved is subjective.”

When I asked for examples, Harrison said, “If home is unsafe, you automatically get approved, but if your reason is that gas is expensive, that is not a valid answer and you would get declined.” Fortunately for students with valid extenuating circumstances, Harrison said it is rare for the housing department to deny students. Additionally, according to Harrison, no proof or documentation of an extenuating circumstance is required for this application.

Why require students to pay $100 to stay on campus over break? Students already pay thousands of dollars and The Bon is not in service during break, so what is this $100 being used for? It should be noted that when applying for university housing and signing the contract, that contract is only applicable for the dates listed, which do not include winter break, spring break, and summer. Because of this, an additional contract is required for a student to sign to remain on campus over a break period. Harrison explained the justification of the fee by explaining that typical staff are off contract during break times. Because of this, all the money for break fees goes toward temporary staff that are hired during these times.

If it were up to me, students would be allowed to stay on campus over break for free. Unfortunately, this is only possible in a world where contracts do not need to be signed. Since that is not our reality, some students will be down $100 this month. In the end, while I think $100 is pretty steep, the reasoning makes sense. Breaks are not included in the housing contract and temporary staff is hired with the fee money to maintain campus over break periods. My reluctant verdict: the fee is fair. Moving forward, I think it would be beneficial for GFU to list more of the possible fees students may encounter during their time here. This would help avoid a last minute panic if a student decides they want to stay on campus over break.