Nearly 1,000 students leave residence as academic year ends
Students who have been living in Algonquin College’s residence since September are being asked to vacate by noon on Sunday.
Only residents who have been accepted into the spring term are allowed to stay.
Denzel Herrero, a receptionist for residence, said over 800 people are vacating residence before Sunday.
“There’s usually about a thousand residents each year,” Herrero added.
Residence will see 200 new faces for the spring term, bringing the total number of occupants until September to 350.
Emails were sent to students’ personal accounts on April 5 reminding them to select a move-out date and sort out moving details before the deadline. Residence is unable to accommodate any late-stayers due to preparations for summer accommodations, which include transforming dorms into hotel rooms.
Many students looked back on their seven-month stay with praise for the college.
Madison Fourney, who’s in the culinary management program and has stayed at residence since September, appreciated the services residence provided during her stay.
“I really liked the rooms. The rooms were nice and big, and I liked having the residence café inside the residence,” Fourney said. “It was really convenient to just go pick up dinner.”
The sentiment was shared by fellow student Jack Ferguson studying computer programming. Ferguson made the move to residence because it’s close to the college campus, eliminating travel time to school.
“I live like 20 or 30 minutes away and it’s just more convenient to go to class from here,” Ferguson said.
The cost of living in residence is expected to increase for the 2023-2024 academic year.
For a regular meal plan plus residence fees, residents paid $11,862 last fall. This fall, the same meal plan option will cost $12,256, the premium meal plan plus fees are increasing by $431 and the light plan plus fees are jumping by $350.
Students staying in residence for their first year are required to purchase any one of the three meal plans.
