Date: December 16, 2020

To: Dr. Lucy Johnson

From: Grace Hanson, Mariah Rozell, Mikayla Soltis, Maddy Wagner
Subject: Recommendation Report for UWEC Housing Cancellation Policy

Attached is the report for our study, “Redesign for UWEC Housing Contract Cancellation Policy
during Covid-19: A Recommendation Report.” We completed the tasks detailed in our research
proposal of December 3, 2020: establishing current student frustrations with the housing contract
cancellation process, researching how other universities are handling housing during Covid-19,
researching the current UWEC housing contract policy and considering ways to make exceptions
for Covid-19, and establishing ways to keep communication between the housing administration
and students clear and professional.

To complete these tasks, we examined secondary research and posted a meme to the UWEC
Memes for Trend-Setting Teens Facebook page to establish student frustrations with housing as a
form of primary research. We explored different literature that discussed the impact Covid-19 has
had on universities and their students, how other universities have responded to Covid-19, and
the importance of responsible communication between the administration and their students.
After reviewing these sources, we came to a conclusion on the best course of action for the
UWEC Housing Administration, and wrote the report.

We found that many student frustrations are related to the lack of communication, clarity, or
consideration for Covid-19. Recognizing that the contract cancellation policies are part of a
larger UW school system policy, we know it may be difficult to change the policies as a whole.
We can, however, work to improve the communication and clarity aspects.

To improve the UWEC Housing Administration’s current response to Covid-19, we recommend

the housing administration work alongside students who feel the need to cancel their housing
contracts and support them through the cancelation appeal process. Housing should also establish
a greater online presence such as Blugold Housing and join the UWECMFTST Facebook page to
be more in touch with student sentiments.

We are grateful for the time we were given to conduct research on this topic and to formulate
recommendations to create a more respectable and understanding Housing Administration
response to Covid-19. We look forward to working seeing this research move forward. If you
have any questions or comments, please contact Grace Hanson, at hansonge9355@uwec.edu,
Mikayla Soltis at soltismr3482@uwec.edu, Maddy Wagner at wagnermm8362@uwec.edu, or
Mariah Rozell at rozellmc0968@uwec.edu.
 Redesign for UWEC Housing Contract Cancellation Policy during Covid-19:
A Recommendation Report

Prepared for: Dr. Lucy Johnson

Prepared by: Grace Hanson, Mariah Rozell, Mikayla Soltis, and Maddy Wagner

December 16, 2020

 Table of Contents

Executive Summary…………………………………………………………………………………....1

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………..3

Research Methods……………………………………………………………………………………..4

Task 1: Interview students to establish current frustrations………………………………..4

Task 2: How are other Universities handling Covid-19 and housing?.............................4

Task 3: What is the current housing contract cancellation policy at UWEC?..................5

Task 4: How is the current communication between students and housing?..................5

Results…………………………………………………………………………………………………..6

Task 1: Current student frustrations …………………………………………………………6

Task 2: Other university policies ……………………………………………………………..7

Task 3: Current cancellation policy ………………………………………………………….8

Task 4: Current communication between students and housing ………………………...8

Conclusions…………………………………………………………..………………………………..9

Task 1: How can we address frustrations?………………………………………………….9

Task 2: How does UWEC compare to other universities?…………………………………9

Task 3: How can we improve UWEC’s current cancellation policy?...............................10

Task 4: How can we improve communication between students and housing?.............10

Recommendation…………………………………………………………..………………………….11

Resources…………………………………………………………..…………………………………..13

Appendix…………………………………………………………..……………………………………15
 1

Executive Summary

At the request of Dr. Lucy Johnson, professor at the University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire

(UWEC), our research group took on the task of redesigning the UWEC housing cancellation

policy and communication during the Covid-19 pandemic. To do this, we conducted some

personal interviews as an investigation into some of the frustration on-campus students were

dealing with. In order to come to a fair and reasonable conclusion, we also did research on how

other schools were handling housing during the pandemic, the current cancellation policies, and

current communication between housing and students.

Currently, the cancellation policy is very strict and offers very few exceptions, no updates have

been made with the added circumstance of Covid-19. Acceptable reasons include: being called to

active duty, marriage, graduation, medical problems that can not be accommodated by UWEC,

or students studying abroad. Most medical problems are not accepted, citing that they should

have been considered prior to signing the contract. The window within which students can cancel

for a refund is very short and virtually impossible to find information on. Communication from

housing is infrequent and often lacks clarity that students need.

To carry out this study, we completed the objectives detailed in our December 3, 2020 research

Proposal. We researched student sentiment and frustration, the cancellation policies of UWEC and

other similar schools, recommendations from the CDC, and took a look at how to improve

communication between housing and students.

Because UWEC operates under the same policies as the rest of the UW system, it may not be realistic

to attempt to change the policies. Especially this late into the pandemic. The decision to refund or
 2

cancel may prove to be costly as well. If we were able though, we would like to give students greater

flexibility around cancellation and deadlines in a similar fashion to the University of Minnesota or

Marquette University.

What we can improve and what we recommend after this project is the current communication in terms

of tone, frequency, and clarity. Research also showed us that it may be beneficial for the housing

administration to be more active on Facebook as well.

 3

Introduction

On November 19th, 2020, Dr. Lucy Johnson at the University of Wisconsin — Eau Claire

charged our group with developing a redesign to the current UWEC Housing cancellation policy

during Covid- 19.

Currently, the UWEC Housing Contract does not allow for cancellation strictly due to the

aversion/concern of Covid-19. Rather students must have a legitimate reason such as: Called to

active duty, marriage, graduation, medical problem that can not be accommodated by UWEC, or

student studying abroad. Presently, even if a student has a medical condition, oftentimes their

request for housing cancellation is denied. The reasoning is that medical conditions should be

taken into consideration by the student before they sign the housing contract.

Overall, communication from the UWEC Housing staff has been inconsistent in regards to the

current pandemic and cancellation policies causes frustrations between staff and students.

Therefore, Dr. Johnson has requested our group to research and determine various ways UWEC

Housing could improve their housing contract and cancellation policy during the pandemic.
 4

Research Methods

To perform the analysis, we broke the project into four tasks:

1. Interview students to establish current frustrations
2. Research how other universities are handling Covid-19 and housing
3. Research the current housing contract cancellation policy at UWEC
4. Understand the current communication between students and housing

Task 1: Interview students to establish current frustrations

In order to understand how the housing situation especially during the COVID crisis is impacting

the students at UWEC, we decided to interview them. We decided to interview them in the

UW-Eau Claire Memes for Trend-Setting Teens Facebook group page (UWECMFTST) because

that is a place that is extremely common for students to vent about situations about things from

the UWEC Administration to the latest person or group that tried to “preach” on campus but

ultimately backfires. Since people tend to post in meme form, we made a meme to fit in with the

rest of the posts but also one that stands out in order to attract attention, hopefully from people

that had bad experiences with Housing.

The meme we shared is featured in the appendix on page 13.

We didn’t get any comments from other students initially but slowly we got some responses. As

of now, we had three people that shared their stories with us.

Task 2: How other universities are handling Covid-19 and housing?

The University of Minnesota is one of UWEC’s direct competitors for student recruitment.

Therefore, we felt it was important to highlight their response to Covid-19 when dealing with

their housing. The University of Minnesota offered on campus housing, but instilled new

Covid-19 protocols such as: wearing a mask when outside of your room and in any communal
 5

spaces, social distancing of 6 feet at all times when possible, and updates to their Community

Behavioral Standards. They also implemented use of the “MTest”, a campuswide testing

protocol.

Wisconsin’s Marquette University, tackled Covid-19 headon and have been very thorough in

providing its students with the information they needed regarding Covid-19 and housing. All

their new housing policies are present on their website along with a well defined FAQ section to

cover all questions that could arise from their on campus student residents. They also

implemented a “no visitation” policy, where no outside guests were allowed in residence halls,

even inter-hall visits were suspended. It is important to note, that in light of the new execute

orders from Governor Evers, Marquette University still is conducting in-person classes, and has

recently updated their website to reflect more stringent covid-19 policies.

Task 3: What is the current housing contract cancellation policy at UWEC?

In effort to understand the current housing cancellation policy at UWEC, we decided to research

through the housing contract and housing appeal processes. We discovered the most recent

housing contract available is for the 2018-2019 school year, indicating no exceptions have been

made for the current Covid-19 pandemic. After reading through UWEC’s housing contract, we

discovered all schools within the University of Wisconsin System are under the same housing

contract cancellation policy.

Task 4: How is the current communication between students and housing?

We decided to take a look into current communication between the housing administration and

students to see if that is where some of the frustrations could be coming from. This involved

taking a look at the language and tone of the emails and policies regarding housing and the

ability to cancel should students need to.

 6

Results

Task 1: Current student frustrations

As a result of us posting on the meme page asking for the perspectives of students, we have had

three students step forward. Their names are Erik Christensen, Janet Bebo, and Lillian Birkholz.

I will walk through each of their situations with you, starting with Erik. Erik is a graduating

senior who studies Communication Sciences and Disorders. He lived in Haymarket Landing this

semester and he wanted to cancel his contract because he was afraid of catching covid and giving

it to his grandma who lives with him. He contacted the housing department and told them about

his situation. They responded by saying there is no way he would feel comfortable living in the

dorms for two months and then not be comfortable living there for the remaining two months. He

said that the actual staff was awesome. Christensen then decided to send statistics to housing

about the rise of covid cases in Eau Claire. He was then contacted by Quincy Chapman, the

Director of Housing, and he said to Christensen that he was planning to meet with him, but then

he noticed the tone of voice that Christensen was using and then decided that a meeting wouldn’t

be feasible. Christensen said that Chapman’s response was manipulative and he felt awful when

he received that email.

Another person who commented under my post on the meme page was a lady by the name of

Janet Bebo. During the 2017-2018 school year, she lived in the America’s Best Value Inn by

Einstein's Bagels on Stein Boulevard. Over the winter break, someone broke into her room and

stole several items including her WiiU and hundreds of dollars worth of games. She contacted

Housing about it but they gave her the run-around and neither Housing nor the hotel would take

responsibility for the theft. There were also shuttles that were supposed to take people from the

hotel to Hilltop for dinner since the students that lived at the hotel were supposed to have a meal
 7

plan but that rarely happened, forcing the students to walk across Clairemont Avenue to campus

to get food from Hilltop or to get food from restaurants close to the hotel. Janet was also on

crutches for the fall and the drivers were not informed of where her dorm was, so for the first few

days of class, she was late. In the case of Janet, there was a bunch of miscommunication and the

hotel and housing not taking responsibility.

The last person that I’ll talk about is Lillian Birkholz. She is currently going through the process

of cancelling her contract due to two reasons: she has serious mental health issues and the second

reason is that she is suffering from a mysterious disease. She has to persuade a board of people

that she is unable to live on campus and what is ailing her aren’t pre-existing conditions by

providing extensive paperwork and also providing doctor’s notes with signatures in hopes that

her contract does get cancelled. Even if it does get cancelled, her family will still not receive any

refunds.

Task 2: Other university policies

The University of MN has elected to extend their housing contract cancellation deadline for first

year students in light of this year’s events. They were also offering students an option to defer

their housing until spring 2021, the only negative to this is they are not able to guarantee housing

location assignments. Other than these changes, their cancellation policies still remain similar to

UWEC.

Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI has been very transparent in their response to Covid-19.

Featured on their website are several FAQ’s in relationship to Covid-19 and student housing,

along with a new addendum to their “Request for Release or Exemption” form from their Office

of Residence Life. This addition to their exemption form includes a section only for Spring 2021
 8

which states: that if a student registers for completely online classes and has a letter/email from a

parent and/or guardian stating the student will be residing with them for the duration of the

academic year at a permanent address then a request for an exemption could be approved.

Task 3: Current cancellation policy

The current UWEC cancellation policy has been established by the Board of Regents and only

permits students to cancel their housing contract if they are quitting school or transferring,

graduating, getting married, or involved in a university-sponsored educational experience

overseas. Students may also be released from their contract if they have a serious medical

condition verified through the Services for Students with Disabilities Office and a licensed

medical provider. While any requests to cancel outside of these exceptions will be

administratively rejected, students may submit a one-time appeal of this rejection. However, this

appeal process is not found in the current housing contract, rather it is found by conducting

searches on the university’s website. As a result, it is very difficult for students to be released

from their contracts, especially during such unprecedented times.

Task 4: Current communication between students and housing

After seeing the impersonal and rigid nature of the housing policy (“housing policy and mission

statement), we can understand why students may not see the housing administration in such a

positive light. It feels like a vague non-human entity rather than a group of people whose job it is

to help students with their housing struggles. Communication happens primarily via email, if at

all.Research into how the administration could improve this showed that it may be beneficial for

them to use a more conversational human voice, gain-focused language, and Facebook to get

their messages across (Oh and Ki).

 9

Conclusion

Task 1: How can we address frustrations?

Based on our conclusions and what we have heard, we believe that it is essential for the staff of

Housing to hear how students feel about their Housing Department. With this said, we believe

that Blugold Housing should every two weeks send an email to every person who lives in

on-campus housing and ask them how their experience is and invite them to talk if they have any

questions or concerns . This step will help students feel validated about their experience and will

show that someone does care about their time here at UWEC.

Task 2: How does UWEC compare to other universities?

UWEC’s social distancing and testing protocols compare well against other universities and are

quite similar in their policies of testing on campus resident students and requiring face coverings.

However, they fail to compare to any of their local and state universities when it comes to

adapting their housing contract and housing cancellation policies. As stated prior, UWEC’s

current housing contract reflects the dates of 2018-2019. Thus making their housing contract

outdated. They have failed to adapt their cancellation policy in light of the pandemic, with only

one exception. This exception took place the first week of classes and would release a student

from their housing contract for a pro-rated refund for reasons relating to Covid-19 if the

cancellation was made by midnight the first Friday of the first week of classes. This exception

was never communicated publicly to the student body. It was not available on the website, nor

was an email sent out by Housing + Residence Life. UWEC Housing + Residence Life simply

cannot be compared to other universities and how they handled Covid-19 and Housing, because

quite simply they failed to make adaptations to their housing contract due to the pandemic. They
 10

also failed to communicate to their residents a possible solution to those students who had

legitimate reasons for needing to opt out of their contracts.

Task 3: How can we improve UWEC’s current cancellation policy?

We recognize UWEC’s housing cancellation policy was determined by the UW System’s Board

of Regents and cannot easily be changed by members of UWEC’s housing administration. In

addition, the literature provided by Friga and Kelderman explain the negative financial impact

Covid-19 has had on universities this past year. As a result, rather than propose changes to the

current housing contract, we believe the UWEC housing administration should clearly

communicate the cancellation appeal process to all on-campus students. While the housing

contract policies are outside of the housing administration’s control, the administration should do

whatever is within their control to support their students. As a result, housing should work

alongside students to help them make the strongest argument for their cancellation appeal.

Housing should also clearly communicate any important deadlines that would be helpful as a

student decides where they are going to live.

Task 4: How can we improve communication between students and housing?

Considering that discussions about the housing administration were exceedingly popular on

Facebook and the fact that Oh and Ki recommended the platform in their study, we believe it

would be beneficial for Blugold Housing to become an account similar to Blugold Dining. If

they join UWECMFTST alongside other official accounts they will be better able to track

student sentiments and reach out more quickly to see if they can help.
 11

It would be ideal if we could change the cancellation policies, but in the event that we cannot, it

would be nice to at least rephrase some of them to show a little sympathy to students who have

found themselves in the situation where they wish to leave campus.

They could improve communication by being mindful of their language and tone in other emails

and forms of communication as well.

 12

Recommendations

We found that many student frustrations are related to the lack of communication, clarity, or

consideration for Covid-19. Based on our research, we’ve come to the conclusion that the current

UWEC housing contract cancellation policies need to be made much clearer. Students would

especially benefit from additional communication about deadlines relating to cancellation and

more clarity on the appeal process. It could be useful for the housing administration to be more

active on Facebook so that they could offer updates in a space students may be more likely to see

them and be able to track student frustrations as they arise.

We would like to be able to offer students greater flexibility in cancelling their housing contracts

for both Covid-19 and non-Covid related reasons. The current policies are very rigid and they

have failed to make any alterations to their policies for this unprecedented semester.

Understanding that the policies are the same across the UW system and that a change this late

into the year may be difficult and costly, we recommend that at the bare minimum, the policies

be rephrased to be 1) easier to understand in terms of dates and deadlines and 2) more

sympathetic to the students facing the difficult circumstances prompting them to cancel their

contract.
 13

Resources

“Considerations for Institutes of Higher Learning.” Center for Disease Control and Prevention,

29 Oct. 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/ colleges-

universities/considerations.html.

Friga, Paul. “Under Covid-19, University Budgets Like We’ve Never Seen Before.” The

Chronicle of Higher Education, 20 April. 2020,

https://www.chronicle.com/article/under-covid-19-university-budgets-like-weve-never-se

en-before/

“Housing Policies + Mission Statement.” University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire,

www.uwec.edu/campus-life/housing-dining/housing/current-students/policies/.

Kelderman, Eric. “Iowa Universities Are Caught Between Covid-19 and Politics.” The Chronicle

of Higher Education, 7 Sept. 2020,

https://www.chronicle.com/article/iowa-universities-are-caught-between-coronavirus-and-

politics

Oh, Jeyoung, and Eyun-Jung Ki. “Factors affecting social presence and word-of-mouth in

corporate social responsibility communication: Tone of voice, message framing, and

online medium type.” Public Relations Review, Vol. 45, no. 2, June 2019, pp. 319-331.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2019.02.005.

“Request for Release or Exemption.” Marquette University, 2020,

www.marquette.edu/residence-life/documents/marquette-housing-exemption-form.pdf.

Schwarzi. “Cancellation & Contract Release.” Housing and Residential Life, University of

Minnesota, 1 Sept. 2020, housing.umn.edu/cancel.

 14

“UWEC Housing Contract.” University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, 2018,

www.uwec.edu/files/1437/2018-2019.pdf.

Wagner, Maddy, and Erik Christensen. “Student Experiences with the UWEC Housing
Department.” 25 Nov. 2020

Wagner, Maddy, and Janet Bebo. “Student Experiences with the UWEC Housing Department.”
25 Nov. 2020.

Wagner, Maddy, and Lillian Birkholz. “Student Experiences with the UWEC Housing
Department.” 25 Nov. 2020
 15

Appendix
Here is our meme as referenced in Task 1: