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One of the chief purposes of residential life at Champlain is to provide a positive environment in which students can prepare for their careers. The College is firm in its resolve to maintain this positive educational environment, and expects all residential students to conduct themselves with the highest regard for their fellow students and for College policy as outlined in the College’s Standard of Conduct and the Diversity Value Statement.
Residency at Champlain College is reserved for full time students. Housing priority is given to Champlain College undergraduate students. The opening and closing dates for residence halls follows the undergraduate calendar. The privilege of enrollment at Champlain or residency in housing may be withdrawn from a student at any time, on any grounds, if the College considers such action to be best for the welfare of the institution and/or the student. Disciplinary cases involving residential students will be investigated by the Office of Residential Life and resolved in accordance with the procedure outlined in the section titled Conduct Review Process, unless the College decides to take interim or permanent action without following such process, as referenced in the Standard of Conduct.
Residential Life staff not only oversee the day-to-day maintenance of the residence halls and implement College regulations, but also provide valuable guidance and support to you as a residential student. They are committed to creating respectful, diverse and inclusive communities. Very often they can help you quickly and directly with any concerns you might have.
The major responsibilities of Residential Life staff are to get to know each resident and to actively help each resident become a part of the College community; to build a fun, responsible and engaging community among students within each residence hall; to develop a working knowledge of College resources and refer students to appropriate personnel when necessary; to discuss, clarify and enforce the College’s residential policies and procedures as published in these policies; and to be on duty and available in their residence halls 8:30 p.m.– 7:00 a.m. daily. Residential Life staff are expected to perform rounds of the building when on duty.
In addition, Residential Life staff generally: attend workshops, training sessions and staff meetings; open and close residences before and after vacation breaks; and report maintenance, safety and security needs as they arise. Any information you have about the latter should be reported to Residential Life staff.
Outdoor bike racks are available at several locations. Bicycles may not be stored in hallways, near fire escapes or in any manner that might obstruct access to or egress from any room. No storage facility is available on campus; bikes should be taken home during the winter months.
Students are responsible for cleaning their own rooms and any connecting bathrooms. Common bathrooms are cleaned by the College on a regular basis, but concern for other residents dictates that each student must clean the bathroom areas after each use.
To maintain standards of health and cleanliness, sheets and mattress protectors must be used on all College beds. Bottles and cans may not be collected in lounges or hallways and must be removed from individual rooms weekly. If you fail to do this, bottles and cans will be removed by College staff.
The College reserves the right to inspect a room at any time, reserves the right to immediately remove all health or safety hazards, and reserves the right to take any and all actions determined at its discretion as are necessary to further the College’s Standard of Conduct and/or student compliance with applicable law. The College staff conducts maintenance and safety inspections of students’ rooms in an effort to discover and repair maintenance problems in their initial stages and to prevent hazards from developing. Potential Standard of Conduct or legal violations discovered in the course of maintenance and safety inspections will be referred as deemed appropriate to College or other authorities.
Students will be charged for damages to residence hall furnishings and buildings beyond what is considered normal wear and tear. When specific responsible parties cannot be identified, any assessment of damages to common areas, such as halls, bathrooms and living rooms, will be apportioned among all floor residents or all hall residents. Similarly, when damages occur within a room, the person responsible will be billed accordingly. In the event that responsibility cannot be placed on a particular individual, the cost of repair will be shared by all residents of the room, floor or building. At the discretion of the Student Accounts Office, students may be suspended from classes for nonpayment of any bill.
1. The College reserves the right to inspect a room at any time, and reserves the right to immediately remove all health or safety hazards.
2. Candles and incense are not permitted in any residence.
3. Cooking is not permitted in the residence halls outside of designated kitchen areas. Cooking appliances in student’s rooms constitute a fire hazard and, if found, will be removed by the staff. This includes all types of coffee makers.
4. Grills are not permitted at any residence hall except at College approved outdoor events.
5. Sunlamps, immersion coils and extension cords are not permitted. Power strips are permitted.
6. Students may decorate their rooms and residence halls, but real greens are not permitted and only UL-approved lights may be used. Lights may not be draped in doorways or hung from the ceiling or fire safety equipment, and they may not be used anywhere near fabric or paper decorations. The College reserves the right to remove any decorations that present a fire hazard. Extra furniture that presents a safety hazard may be removed by the College.
7. All exits are to be kept free of obstructions.
8. All fire escapes, extinguishers, alarms and carbon monoxide detectors are for use in emergencies and in supervised fire drills only. Their use for other purposes is a serious violation of College regulations.
9. Halogen lamps are not permitted in residence halls.
10. No drapes, flags, tapestries or other flammable materials may be hung from walls in such a way as to interfere with egress from the room or the operation of a light fixture, sprinkler head or smoke detector.
Students will be fined $100 for any violation of these regulations, including unnecessary discharge of a fire extinguisher or tampering with pull stations, smoke or heat detectors, emergency exits, carbon monoxide detectors or any life- safety device. Students who fail to exit a building during a drill or an unplanned alarm may also be subject to this fine or similar sanctions (if the responsible party is not identified, the fine may be levied against all building residents). Violation of these regulations may also be a violation of the College’s Standard of Conduct that will be handled under the College’s disciplinary procedures.
Fire drills in residence halls must be conducted once per semester with most students participating. The Campus Public Safety staff will conduct a fall training session for all students in each residence hall upon request. The procedure for running a fire drill is as follows:
1. Each semester, Campus Public Safety staff will conduct one unannounced fire drill in every residence hall that will be timed by staff. The goal is for all students to exit the building within two minutes of the alarm sounding. Because students are not to know of the drill prior to its happening, the procedure is as follows: Campus Public Safety officer notifies the local fire department of the drill and then proceeds to the dorm and notifies the Residential Life staff of the drill and then immediately activates a pull station to start the alarm.
2. A Campus Public Safety officer will arrive at the residence hall before the drill is initiated.
3. A Public Safety officer will telephone the local fire department to report when the drill will begin, so the department can take the building offline.
4. The Public Safety officer will activate a pull station only after being given clearance by Public Safety and/or Residential Life staff.
5. In a planned drill or unplanned alarm, a Residential Life staff member or Public Safety officer will check all the rooms to make sure that all students have evacuated the building. Attendance will be taken at an outdoor waiting area by a Public Safety officer or Residential Life staff member.
6. After the evacuation of the building is complete, the Residential Life staff member will help Public Safety silence the alarm and reset the pull station. The Public Safety staff will reset the panel and notify the local fire department that the drill is complete.
In the event of an unplanned alarm, please note the following:
1. Everyone must evacuate the building immediately. No one may reenter the building for any reason.
2. A Residential Life staff member should account for all residents at the designated waiting area. A Public Safety staff member or local fire department representative should be immediately notified if an occupant remains unaccounted for.
3. Only after the local fire department establishes the safety of the building may residents reenter the residence hall.
The College’s annual fire safety report is available at the Campus Public Safety and Security Office or online at http://www.champlain.edu/Documents/security/annsecreport2010.pdf
Any food kept in student rooms must be stored in tightly sealed containers. Food and beverages may be consumed in the lounge areas.
Furniture in common areas has been arranged by the College to provide the best setup both for the residents and for College functions. If you have an idea to make common areas better gathering places, discuss it with the Residential Life Office. Any changes must be approved by the Student Life Office before they are implemented. Students should not bring their own furniture, and lofts not provided by the College are not allowed. Lounge furniture is not to be used in students’ rooms or to be placed outside. Students may not make structural changes to their rooms. Air conditioners cannot be installed in student rooms, as this represents a safety hazard and a drain on electrical systems that are not designed to accommodate this.
The hours of room and lounge visitation are 9:00 a.m.–11:00 p.m., Sunday through Thursday, and 9:00 a.m.–midnight on Friday and Saturday. In all cases, students and their guests are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that does not intrude on the rights of privacy or significantly interfere with the normal residential lives of others. Students may be held responsible for actions of their guests; to the extent such actions implicate students’ responsibilities under the Standard of Conduct.
Overnight guests are permitted for no more than two nights and only with the permission of roommates. Students are required to notify residence hall staff whenever overnight guests will be present in the building. Please remind your guests of the following:
1. Guests must be visiting a particular person in a residence hall. The person who is the host in the residence hall is responsible for the behavior of that guest.
2. Sleeping in the common areas of residence halls is prohibited.
3. The College may refuse entry to nonresidents or require them to leave the premises, at the College’s sole discretion.
4. No one may live in a residence hall unless he or she is registered to live there through Champlain College. At the discretion of the residential staff, guests staying more than two nights in any one semester may be barred from further visitation in College residence halls.
All residential students, excluding those residing in Spinner Place, have mailboxes in Cushing Hall. All official College communication will come via e-mail or the student’s mailbox. Students will receive mailbox assignments with their housing assignment. Returning students have the same mailboxes as they did the previous year. Students who receive a package too big for the mailbox will receive a card directing them to the College mailroom to pick it up.
All mail sent through the U.S. Postal Service will be delivered to student mailboxes Monday through Friday (there is no weekend or holiday delivery). Emergency mail that must be received on a weekend should be sent via FedEx or UPS and addressed to the STREET address of the residence hall.
The correct mailing address is very important! Please help us deliver your mail by making sure people know your correct address and that they use the complete Zip code. All mail to residential students should be addressed as follows:
For UPS or FedEx please use:
Student’s Name and Mailbox #
Champlain College
246 South Willard St.
Burlington, VT 05401
For U.S. Postal Service please use:
Student’s Name and Mailbox #
Champlain College
P.O. Box 670
Burlington, VT 05402
Students living at Spinner Place will receive mail and packages there. Please address mail as follows:
Student’s Name, Apt. #
25 Winooski Falls Way
Winooski, VT 05404
Reasonable attempts will be made to forward first-class mail to residential students during the summer months.
All residential students except Spinner Place residents are required to purchase meals under contract at the College dining facility (IDX Student Life Center) and are charged accordingly. The College believes that bringing students together for meals not only fosters new friendships and thus is an important part of life at Champlain, but also aids in providing better food service to all concerned.
Students must present an ID card at each meal; students on the full meal plan cannot transfer meals to others. Students are expected to behave just as they would in their own home or at a restaurant. Throwing food or trays or behaving in a way that disrupts or disturbs other people is prohibited, and violators may be evicted. Serious violations of dining hall regulations may result in the cancellation of your meal contract or disciplinary action; this inevitably means that you may lose residency rights as well.
Parties may not be held in the residences. Instead, the College makes the IDX Student Life Center and the Alumni Auditorium available during evening hours for social functions. To coordinate events in these facilities, contact the Event Center.
Burlington residents are required by law to recycle the following items: paper (including cardboard), plastics #1-7, aluminum cans, and glass bottles and jars. Items should be reasonably clean. For full details on what can be recycled, go to http://www.cswd.net/recycling/. Recycling of these items is the responsibility of residents as well as the responsibility of all faculty and staff. There are receptacles in the residence halls for these items, and it is expected that residential students will participate in the recycling program. Returnable bottles and cans may not be gathered in lounge areas or in the hallways.
Incoming students are encouraged to submit housing and/or roommate preferences via the Housing Assignment Preference form included in the College acceptance packet. The College will attempt to assign students based on their preferences in the order of Early Decision 1 accepted students first, then Early Decision 2 accepted students, then regularly admitted students, then transfer students. The same buildings are often chosen by incoming students, so it is not always possible to grant preferences. Roommate choices will be honored if both parties make the request to live together.
Returning students are assigned priority numbers in early April in order to select rooms for the following year. Priority numbers are based on the number of credits earned toward graduation. Detailed housing selection information is released each March and is available on the Residential Life Department Web page.
Students wishing to move during the academic year may do so at any time. Every attempt will be made to accommodate changes when appropriate spaces are available. Information regarding special accommodation room assignments can be found in the Accommodations section of this handbook.
At Champlain College we believe strongly in the educational benefits of learning to live with others, and practicing collaboration and compromise. All residential students will complete living agreements with their roommates in the first few weeks of the semester. The Residential Life Staff works with students to help mediate and resolve conflict. Steps towards resolution of conflict could include revisiting the living agreement or participation in discussion and mediation with support from Residential Life Staff. If it is determined that the best resolution for all parties is a room reassignment, students should see the Operations Manager in the Office of Residential Life. The College reserves the right to reassign students as necessary. Students may request room changes by visiting the Department of Residential Life and filling out a Room Change Request form.
Students are not permitted on roofs because of the danger of falling and because of the damage this can do to the roofs. Additionally, students are prohibited from climbing on or rappelling from any College owned or operated buildings or structures.
Indoor smoking is banned in all College buildings. As of September 2012, outdoor smoking is banned on campus within 25 feet of all entries, outdoor air intakes and operable windows. From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., outdoor smoking is banned on the central campus except in a designated area.
Because storage space is very limited and students sometimes move from room to room during the year, individual room furniture may not be disassembled or moved without specific written permission from the Student Life Office. No space is available for storage of students’ belongings over the summer.
When you are living in a community with other students and College staff, it is important to remain respectful of others at all hours of the day and night. It is expected that electronic devices will be operated at a reasonable, considerate volume at all times. Speakers or amplifiers may not be placed on windows or outside at any time. Quiet hours are 11:00 p.m.–7:00 a.m. daily, but courtesy is expected 24 hours a day. During exam periods, 24-hour quiet is required in all residence halls.
Suspected thefts should be reported immediately to both the Student Life Office and the Campus Public Safety Office. It is your responsibility to carry theft insurance on your property; the College does not assume responsibility for any personal possessions that are lost or stolen.
Students are notified prior to the beginning of each school year the dates that the College will close for breaks. Students are expected to adhere to these dates and vacate their residence hall rooms on time. Exceptions will only be made if requested more than 48 hours prior to the close time, and in cases of extenuating circumstances. Students failing to vacate on time will be subject to the College Conduct Review process, possibly resulting in sanctioning or fines. No storage of personal property is available, so all possessions must be removed at the end of the academic year or when you no longer are enrolled at the College.
Windows may not be used for entry or non-emergency exits. Students are encouraged to keep windows closed and locked when not present in the room. |
