Autumn Quarter Updates

The University has been working closely with UChicago Medicine to design a campus experience that makes your personal health and well-being our top priority. We will implement a variety of mandatory health protocols to help protect students, faculty, and staff living in University housing. This will include:

• COVID-19 testing of everyone living in University residence halls, which will take place upon your arrival and routinely throughout the year.
• Under the direction of UChicago Medicine Infectious Diseases specialists, the University is establishing a team dedicated to timely contact tracing for reported cases of COVID-19 involving the campus community.
• There will be a quarantine period for students after moving into the residence halls. Additional details will be provided closer to your arrival on campus and will follow the latest guidance from public health experts.
• Preparations have been made for students in residence halls who contract COVID-19 and must follow isolation procedures. Separate campus housing space has been reserved specifically for these students. Those students living off-campus who contract COVID-19 will be required to remain in isolation where they live.
• Our student health and wellness resources, including mental health services, will be available to assist students both on-campus and virtually.

Undergraduate Housing

On-campus residence halls will be operated at a reduced capacity.

• All room assignments will be single occupancy, including within apartments, to provide you more personal space.
• While the opening of Woodlawn Residential Commons has increased our on-campus housing capacity, in order to help maintain health and safety guidelines, overall occupancy will be approximately 40% below the newly expanded capacity for Autumn Quarter.
• We expect that our residence halls with reduced capacity will accommodate all first-year students and a subset of returning College students.
• The University is providing contact information and other details for rental agencies to returning students in need of off-campus housing. Additional tips and information also are available to assist students.
• All students on financial aid, regardless of whether they live in a residence hall, will receive an aid package this year that includes increased funding to cover incremental off-campus rental costs and dining expenses.
• All returning second-year students who desire on-campus housing must log into the myHousingportal and complete the Housing Intent form. Third-year and fourth-year students may add themselves to the Housing and Residential Life waitlist via the myHousingportal.

Residential Dining

While our on-campus food will still be delicious and plentiful, the dining experience will be different to accommodate social distancing and other health guidelines. Preparations are underway to ensure that you have more convenient options to choose from.

• In-person dining will be offered at a limited number of locations on campus with the adoption of additional sanitation and safety measures.
• Health safety protocols will be established, including the elimination of self-service food options like salad bars, etc.
• To facilitate social distancing, the maximum capacity at dining commons will be reduced by about 75% for the Autumn Quarter.
• Extended hours will help reduce density at any given time and provide you additional dining options throughout the day.
• A new focus will be placed on take-away meals that still deliver the quality and variety of food offerings that our students crave.

Frequently Asked Questions

Additional Information