Reopening of Leitch Hall's Common Areas
The Issue
Hello,
There is currently an issue that needs to be addressed at the residence building called Leitch Hall at Umass Lowell. I would like to bring to your attention the recent closure of our common room areas without any warning until the spring semester. I can speak for myself, as well as others that live in Leitch when I say we are severely disappointed with this knee-jerk reaction (we are assuming due to 3 cases found recently, but were not given any official reason). We all understand the effects of covid and have been dealing with the implications of this virus since February. This common area has been our way to safely connect with the classmates that we live with and we are saddened and confused that it was taken away without warning or explanation; especially when we are already getting tested weekly. With this decision, residence life is forcing us into our rooms whenever we are in our dorm building, and we don’t believe that this is good for our mental health.
By signing this petition, you are helping us not only get the explanation we deserve, but also by bringing the Leitch common rooms back into usage, and we are extremely grateful.
I moved into Leitch on October 8th, and my first week and a half were miserable. I felt that "residence life" made no effort in creating an inclusive or relationship fostering environment. I didn’t have anyone to talk to, or a car to go anywhere, and felt like I was wasting the thousands of dollars that I have saved to have a college experience. After those weeks though, I found an amazing group of people, that I would’ve never connected with, without the common area. It is like our living room.
Furthermore, we are very confused by this decision due to the recent (and extremely tragic) deaths of students that were enrolled at UML. This decision is negatively affecting our mental health and it doesn’t seem like the appropriate reaction to the current mental state of our student's population. We need to have a safe (and spacious) place to talk about our emotions, feelings, and issues, and the closure of the common room eliminates this.
We have sent the emails and called the phone numbers with no response. Now, we are just desperate for some answers or explanations. Thank you.
The Issue
Hello,
There is currently an issue that needs to be addressed at the residence building called Leitch Hall at Umass Lowell. I would like to bring to your attention the recent closure of our common room areas without any warning until the spring semester. I can speak for myself, as well as others that live in Leitch when I say we are severely disappointed with this knee-jerk reaction (we are assuming due to 3 cases found recently, but were not given any official reason). We all understand the effects of covid and have been dealing with the implications of this virus since February. This common area has been our way to safely connect with the classmates that we live with and we are saddened and confused that it was taken away without warning or explanation; especially when we are already getting tested weekly. With this decision, residence life is forcing us into our rooms whenever we are in our dorm building, and we don’t believe that this is good for our mental health.
By signing this petition, you are helping us not only get the explanation we deserve, but also by bringing the Leitch common rooms back into usage, and we are extremely grateful.
I moved into Leitch on October 8th, and my first week and a half were miserable. I felt that "residence life" made no effort in creating an inclusive or relationship fostering environment. I didn’t have anyone to talk to, or a car to go anywhere, and felt like I was wasting the thousands of dollars that I have saved to have a college experience. After those weeks though, I found an amazing group of people, that I would’ve never connected with, without the common area. It is like our living room.
Furthermore, we are very confused by this decision due to the recent (and extremely tragic) deaths of students that were enrolled at UML. This decision is negatively affecting our mental health and it doesn’t seem like the appropriate reaction to the current mental state of our student's population. We need to have a safe (and spacious) place to talk about our emotions, feelings, and issues, and the closure of the common room eliminates this.
We have sent the emails and called the phone numbers with no response. Now, we are just desperate for some answers or explanations. Thank you.
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Petition created on November 9, 2020