For some University students, summer break means getting out of Champaign-Urbana as fast as possible. However, other students find themselves suffering through the corn-sweat-ridden months of June and July in C-U.
To make this transition time easier for students, the University offers summer break housing in Daniels Hall.
“Over the summer, campus is kind of lonely, and that can add up very quickly … it’s just a very different vibe from during the school year where you have busy bodies everywhere,” said Aniya Parker, summer resident adviser and senior in ACES. “It’s always very quiet.”
Some of the unsung heroes of summer University housing are the summer RAs. Kushal Ghimire, summer RA and junior in LAS, explained that the process to get the position is very competitive, with interviewers looking for candidates who create a strong “Illinois residential experience.”
Ghimire said this experience includes the RAs helping residents with their academic success, personal growth, community engagement and social justice exploration. As an RA during the academic year, Ghimire felt he engaged with the residents and provided them with the complete Illinois residential experience, making him an ideal candidate for the summer position.
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Another part of being an RA during the summer was ensuring that residents engaged with their community, even with busy summer schedules.
“Throughout the summer, if someone is staying in the residence halls, they are tending to be busy with certain duties, such as they’re engaging in research or they’re taking a lot of classes … so they don’t necessarily have much time to do events or engage in them,” Ghimire said.
Both Ghimire and Parker went above and beyond to ensure residents were aware of their presence. Ghimire would get to know individual residents and personally invite them to events.
Parker used a similar tactic, leaving Post-it notes on doors or stopping by residents’ rooms to check in on their well-being.
“It’s always better to have friendly conversation, invite them in person, rather than sending them a million emails or things like that,” Ghimire said.
While having someone to rely on is a large focus of University summer housing, the option of having a place to stay over the summer is the factor that takes precedence.
Ghimire and Parker observed a diverse group of residents, ranging from undergraduate students to graduate students who stayed in C-U for various reasons, including research, work and being unable to go home for the summer.
“A lot of residents that I do talk to, there’s a situation where … they couldn’t go back to their home,” Parker said. “They have homes that aren’t the best environments for them to thrive in. They actually need to stay over the summer.”
Parker said she’s also had international students stay over the summer after running into issues with their visas that prevented them from returning home. Parker recognized that University summer housing was a “nice way to have a safe space and something to fall back on.”
Summer housing is available for both undergraduate and graduate students and is offered between mid-May and early August. Residents have the ability to choose the length of their stay with a seven-consecutive-night requirement.
The University also offers interim housing after the summer halls close and before the fall housing assignments begin.
“Summer is really flexible,” Ghimire said. “You can buy a meal plan at the dining hall if you’d like, and everything is cleaned for you. Things like those little things are taken care of, so you can really focus on what you’re here to focus on.”
