Ontario Students In Res This Fall Will Have Their Own Rooms & No Visitors Are Allowed

Res will be a little different this year. According to multiple university reopening plans, on-campus housing will be going through structural changes in order to safely follow advice from public health. Ontario university residences this fall will now have no visitors, and most students will have their own rooms. 

Each school has its own guidelines that students will be following now that the semester is about to begin.

Some changes include universities not allowing visitors into dorms this year and limiting the capacity in on-campus residences.

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Humber College, U of Ottawa, Queen's University, and the University of Guelph have all announced on their information pages that bringing a friend into your on-campus residence is a no-go this year. 

Queen's confirmed on their website that first-year student "rooms are single occupancy only."

Certain schools will have a limited amount of shareable dorms if students are able to safely keep a two-meter distance.

The University of Ottawa writes on its website that "most students will have their own bedroom. If you have to share a bedroom, it will be with one other student."

At the University of Guelph, their East Village Townhouses and West Residences will be the only buildings housing students, and each resident will have their own bathroom.

"East Village and West Residence buildings provide students with individual washroom facilities and make physical distancing easier to maintain," says the website.

Common areas are also getting an overhaul. Many of them will be closed or extremely restricted. 

At Humber College, no group or social gatherings will be permitted, and they are closing all lounges, studies, kitchens, fitness rooms and dining halls indefinitely, says their Fall move-in guide. 

The University of Ottawa is also closing shared areas until physical distancing is no longer a requirement.

Some exceptions will be laundry rooms, but with restricted access, says their website. 

Some schools have opted to cancel on-campus res except for those who need it. 

In an email to Narcity, McMaster rep Wade Hemsworth confirmed that "we don’t have a first-year class living in residence this year (only 50 students in exceptional circumstances are in residence when we would normally have about 4,200)" 

Queen's University reports that their occupancy has declined by 50% this year, with about 2,300 students moving into residence this fall.