When Evan Gerike left his dorm at Indiana University Bloomington for spring break, he had a feeling he wasn’t coming back.
Gerike, of Portage, is a freshman at IU, and is one of many who had returned home for spring break, and later found out his dorm would be closed. But, he said he knew COVID-19 causing the university to cancel face-to-face classes for two weeks following spring break likely meant it was over for the semester, and he tried to pack as much as he thought he’d need.
“My inclination was that it was going to be closed for the semester, so I kind of planned for that,” Gerike said. “Because I knew that things were going to be weird and I didn’t know if three weeks was going to hold up, I tried to plan accordingly and bring everything I would even maybe need anytime soon.”
Gerike said he and his friends tried to do as much as possible together before leaving for spring break, because none of them really knew what was going on.
“No one really wanted to leave because we knew that not coming back — it would be tough,” he said.
Danielle Topping said while moving her son, Colin, out of his dorm at Purdue University in West Lafayette, she cried a little.
Colin, a sophomore in engineering at Purdue, was one of many students at Purdue displaced by dorm closures due to the cancellation of face-to-face classes. Danielle said as they him moved out, she realized how heartbroken she was for the experiences he would miss.
“It was just this feeling on campus where you felt like, ‘Wow, there’s no one here,’” Danielle said. “This is such a disruption and a huge change, and it feels different, because it’s not anything we can control.”
Purdue announced recently that students could get a $750 credit to if they were to check out by or are not remaining in the university residences after March 30, so Topping said she and Colin drove down to Purdue March 20 to move him out.
“I understand why it had to happen,” Colin said. “I’m mostly disappointed about not seeing my friends, because they’re all kind of spread out, and since we all lived in the dorms it was really easy to go and see each other.”
Katie Marcinek, of Crown Point, also a freshman from IU, said she only brought a suitcase full of enough belongings to last her a week.
Marcinek said she would likely stay in the region until August. But, she said, soon she’ll need to return to the university to pick up more belongings, among them her laptop.
“I was just assuming, you know, I’ll come back (to campus), be there for a little bit — I didn’t realize it was going to be all semester,” Marcinek said.
Marcinek is one of many who had plans to return to the university before the closure of the dorms March 23. IU spokesperson Chuck Carney said anyone who wasn’t able to get to the university before the closure can schedule an appointment to move out or have important belongings shipped.
“We’re going to try to make sure this is as painless as possible,” Carney said. “Although this is obviously a huge inconvenience and something that is not usual.”
For Payton Bastie, of Dyer, returning to IU to retrieve her belongings from her dorm room at Willkie Residence Center revolves around her sister’s pregnancy.
She said to and her family were planning to make an appointment, but still, they’re nervous to go and miss the birth.
“We’ve been trying to go around that, because she’s due soon and we want to be here when she has the baby,” Bastie said. “So, we’ve been trying to figure out if it would be better to go before or after the baby.”
Bastie said of the things she needs to retrieve from her dorm, one of the biggest is her Keurig.
It sounds silly, she said over the phone with a laugh, but she doesn’t have a coffee pot at home. So, aside from being on campus with her friends, she said that’s one of the things she misses most.
“I used to drink coffee every morning, so I haven’t really been able to have coffee every morning since I’ve been home,” Bastie said. “But it could be a good detox.”
While Gerike said he was feeling upset about not being able to finish his freshman year, he said if there was any year this could happen during his college, he’s glad it was this one.
Looking at the bright said, he said, it’s hard to miss communal showers and dorm food — though he still does.
“Living in a dorm is not ideal, and we all complained about it as much as possible when we were there,” Gerike said. “But at the same time it’s like, I signed up for another eight weeks of this and now it’s getting cut short.”
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