Home away from home as St. Lawrence College students in Kingston move into residence

University and college students have another few days before they officially hit the books again.

The coronavirus pandemic has meant plenty of changes, and at St. Lawrence College, those changes especially affect students living in residence. On Friday, student move-in continued at least at the Kingston campus.

“I’m excited to be back at school,” said Sydney Spyk, a second year nursing student.

“I’m excited to be back in my program and to be back in residence. And try to have the best year that we can possibly have with all this going on.”

2:03 Fall school semester just around the corner for Kingston’s Queen’s University and St. Lawrence College

Spyk, who is also a resident adviser, says despite the circumstances, though, she’s ready to go.

“We’re feeling safe. Our college is definitely advocating for us in great ways in keeping us safe and making sure we’re all social distancing and wearing masks,” she said, “and putting plexiglass up where it needs to be, and really just doing everything that needs to be done.”

Glenn Vollebregt, president and CEO of St. Lawrence, says the college, including the residence, has plenty of protocols in place as students move in.

“I’m really proud of the teams that have been working on making sure that our place is safe,” Vollebregt said.

“We’ve got our markings for making sure that we are physically distancing. We have hand sanitizers. There’s an elevator behind me and only one person at a time in the elevator.

“We’ve done everything that we can to ensure that it’ll be a safe experience.”

Vollebregt says the residence can hold over 600 but that’ll be cut in half for this year.

Students’ move-in in will continue over the weekend.

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