Administration waives $50 Thanksgiving break fee in response to multiple complaints

Hannah Mirsky, News Director
October 20, 2021

Students living on-campus for Thanksgiving break will no longer be required to pay the $50 housing fee.

According to an email sent by Residential Life, students who plan to stay in the residence halls must sign up by 5 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 11 and obtain a written approval from the Office of Residential Life. Housing will officially close on Friday, Nov. 19 and will reopen at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 28.

Multicultural Student Leadership Council (MSLC) Internal Affairs Chair Anesu Mhene says the Department for Cultural and Global Engagement had conversations with administration to remove the fee.

“A lot of people I know in DCGE, we have Sarah Driscoll that had spoken with administration and I’m glad that they took it on board and acted pretty swiftly,” Mhene said. “So, it does show that when you do come forth and we say ‘hey this isn’t right’ that they are actually willing to take that into account…I think they handled that well.”

Vice President for Public Relations John Morgan sent the following statement in response to the issue.

“After receiving student feedback, the decision was made to not charge students to stay in university-owned housing during the Thanksgiving break,” Morgan said.

International Student Association (ISA) sent an open letter to a few of Quinnipiac University’s administrators stating “We must be conscious of the fact that many international students have found themselves in financial or accommodational distress, with no part-time work, and no access to any form of government financial assistance.”

The calls for action ISA provided are as listed:

For all fees associated with housing over the thanksgiving break affecting international students to be waived entirely.
Transparency as to why a $50 fee per day for break housing was originally imposed. For future decisions (such as those with financial implications on housing) which could impact international students be continually addressed with DCGE and other at large organizations on campus who represent our international community prior to public release.
For a representative cabinet of student leaders and faculty to be organized by Residential Life to survey student experience specifically consistent of various student leaders in Multicultural Organizations and international students of our campus.
For a formal partnership between the International Student Association and Residential Life to be developed in an effort to ensure the prosperity of all international students on campus.

While the President of ISA does not believe it was an intentional hit to the group of students, they feel it was still an unnecessary decision.

“I don’t think Quinnipiac was meaning to hurt anybody by doing this, but I don’t think they recognize the ramifications that came with this,” they said.

Chief Experience Officer Tom Ellett apologized a few hours later in response to the open letter for not consulting with ISA before the decision was made, saying, “I apologize for not having reached out to your organization prior to the memo being sent.”

The response from Ellet went on to mention that this policy was in place not only last year but years prior.

“Last year this policy was in place, so I assumed it was something that was historical in nature,” Ellett said. “As you are aware, the residence halls have been closed during Thanksgiving at QU for decades, so this is not a new policy.”

However, the campus was open to all students in the past years without charge. Fourth-year international student and student-athlete Alester Magalit says he never paid to stay on campus during Thanksgiving break. Magalit has stayed on campus for Thanksgiving break during his first and second year at Quinnipiac.

“No, definitely not. I didn’t have to pay anything,” Magalit said. “I was allowed to stay. Basically, all I had to do was just submit an application saying that, since I’m an international student, it’s impossible for me to fly back to my own country because it’s not practical.”

Magalit feels that the decision to charge students was unrealistic.

“It kind of deters us from actually staying on campus when really as international students, it’s not practical for us to fly back to our own country so we kind of have to resort to either maybe staying with some friends off campus or find something to do outside of school,” Magalit said.

A lot of times, staying off-campus during break adds on additional expenses for international students.

“But some of us who have a not so ideal financial background, we would prefer to stay in one place to minimize the cost,” Magalit said.

While public safety will be available throughout the week, all other services and offices will be closed during Thanksgiving break.