Students would prefer to have move-out and finals occur at separate times to decrease some of the stress on their shoulders.
Photo by Makenna Wozniak | The Crow’s Nest
By Julia Birdsall
On May 7, English sophomore Parsley Weakland has a final. By noon the following day, they are required to be fully moved out of their dorm.
Because their parents are unable to assist them this year, they have to balance studying for the final and packing for move-out.
“I have this Spanish final that I need to prep for, it’s early in the morning,” Weakland said. “Then the next day… I need to wake up early again and get all my stuff out [of the dorm].”
Many students can relate to this struggle, making the week of May 4 to May 8 one of the most stressful in a University of South Florida college student’s career.
Sustainability senior Alexandra Gountas told The Crow’s Nest that, while her finals workload will not be as strenuous this year, previous years have been jam-packed and stressful.
“It becomes a little difficult to focus fully on schoolwork, because I’m thinking of how much I need to move out,” she said.
She tries to pack most of her things before finals to reduce stress, but, because she gets most of her studying done in her room, any change to the space is distracting.
“I just am the kind of person who doesn’t like my space to change when I want to focus and lock in,” she said. “Changing the space does kind of affect how well I can study in my room.”
Biology senior Maya Shaffer agreed that their finals schedule is not as “completely stacked” this year as it has been previously but recalled several finals weeks in which packing and studying have become overwhelming.
“I remember that in my sophomore year, I had a 7:30 a.m. final on the last day before move-out and then a 9:30 final right after it,” they said. “It was such a stressful time. I remember leaving that second final and just immediately going into pack mode and it was very, very draining.”
There have been a couple of instances in which Shaffer worried that she would not get out of the dorm on time and would have to pay the expensive late fee.
“I’ve had to ask for extensions before because of all my finals lining up with packing at the exact same time,” they said. “I asked for a day and a half in my junior year and they gave me, I think, eight hours.”
This year, she has the added stress of graduation and a solo, cross-country drive to their family’s new home in California on top of moving out.
As they are graduating on May 9 at 6 p.m., Shaffer requested an extended stay but they were only granted a couple of extra hours and are required to be fully moved out by May 10 at 1 p.m.
This means that they’ll have to book an extra night of accommodation on the drive to California.
“It’s definitely going to be an ordeal because my car is going to have to be empty to drive myself to Tampa to go to my own graduation,” they said. “So I’m realistically going to be looking at coming home to the dorm at around 8 or 9 o’clock that night and having to shove it completely full by 1 o’clock the next day.”
While she is not required to move out on the typical date of May 8 this year, they said that there is additional stress during that time as well, due to the constant issues with elevators and crowding from families.
“Almost every single semester without fail, one of the elevators breaks,” Shaffer told The Crow’s Nest. “That creates so much chaos every single time.”
Gountas echoed this sentiment. She, Shaffer and Weakland, all long-time RHO residents, suggested that there be planned maintenance on the building’s elevators before move-out.
“Last year…I think one of [the elevators] broke,” Weakland said. “Which sucks because…me personally, I can’t carry everything down flights of stairs.”
Shaffer also pointed out that this “isn’t acceptable” for differently-abled students and their families.
“Not everyone who studies here is physically able or…their family has some disabilities that means that they can’t go up and down stairs,” Shaffer said. “We have students who are in wheelchairs here, so the fact that the elevators are going out during move-in and move-out weeks, it really isn’t that acceptable.”
Other suggestions that the interviewees made to lessen the stress that students face during move-out and finals week include ending finals earlier, on Wednesday instead of Friday, for example, and pushing move-out into the weekend so that students’ families don’t have to take off work to help them move.
They also suggested providing students with more help during their move-out process, such as providing more carts for them to rent.
“I’m not going to say it isn’t fair. I’m going to say it’s not equitable to everyone,” Shaffer said about the current conditions of move-out and finals week.
