Premier Doug Ford declared a state of emergency in Ontario on March 17 due to concerns over the health of residents due to COVID-19. The state of emergency is supposed to last until March 31 with all “non-essential” businesses, such as restaurants and clubs, shutting down.
As a result, the University of Ottawa (U of O) announced that all resident students are required to move out by March 22.
“Because we want to protect our students, and the most vulnerable members of the Ottawa community from the risk of COVID-19 infection, we are now requiring all students currently living in uOttawa residences to fully vacate their rooms as soon as possible,” said the statement by Jill Scott, provost and vice-president of academic affairs.
Arianna Halani, a first year health science student at the U of O was planning on staying in residence until the end of April.
“It’s kinda annoying because now I have to figure out how to move out, because I can’t just quickly take a bus home. I have to move everything out,” said Halani.
The statement further said that international students and those with “exceptional circumstances” will not be required to move out.
It was not made clear to students directly what “exceptional circumstances” are, said Halani.
Before they announced a mandatory move out, the U of O informed students that they would be providing a refund for meal plans and living costs if students moved out before the 22nd.
“A lot of people were planning on staying in residence but this definitely changed their minds,” said Halani.
The lobby of U of O residence 90U was “packed” on Sunday and Monday before the mandatory moveout was implemented, she said.
“It was like moving day again.”
An online petition was started by COVID Rent Strike, a group that is planning on coordinating a rent strike on April 1 to freeze rents due to the pandemic, to stop the eviction of U of O students from residence.
The group collected over 500 signatures in 24 hours.
Sam Hersh, a member of COVID Rent Strike, said he understands the university’s reasoning behind deciding to enforce a mandatory move out. However, he said the decision was “short sighted.”
“There’s an eviction freeze for tenants, so we don’t see why students should be treated any differently than normal tenants,” said Hersh.
Hersh said they are not sure if the U of O was not aware of their petition, or if they chose to simply ignore it.
Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) is also enforcing a mandatory move out from residence. WLU infomed students on March 16 they would have to move out by March 18, giving students only two days to organize their move out.
However, they provided a list of “exceptional circumstances” that would allow certain students to stay living in residence or move out, such as being international students, out-of-province students, students whose families live more than five hours away from campus and if they are self isolating.
Carleton informed students that those who are living in residence and move out by March 22, will receive a full refund for meal plan and living costs for the month of April. However, they are not requiring all residence students to leave.
“While we recognize that some of our residents are not in a position to go home, we strongly recommend that those who can go home do so as soon as possible,” the school said in an email sent to students.
Photo by Spencer Colby.
