The last week in August marked the return of about 2,000 students to Mayflower Hill for an in-person fall semester. This unique opportunity was made possible thanks to a $10 million testing program intended to allow for in-person classes at the private institution while also keeping the surrounding Waterville community safe amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. While these intentions sound promising, Colby’s contradictory student housing policy has put local small businesses in difficult financial situations as the College requires all students to live in campus-owned housing.

The situation becomes more complex with the knowledge that Colby is continuing to place about 300 students in their downtown apartments as well as their new, and still unfinished, Lockwood Hotel. Colby’s refusal to allow approximately 75 students to live in off-campus houses, yet assign hundreds of students to live on Main Street contradicts their plan to limit contact with the Waterville community.

From a monetary perspective it is in Colby’s best interest to keep students in campus-owned housing to raise their tuition, but how can the liberal arts institution claim they are “Daring Northward” and supporting the greater community when they are preventing students from immersing themselves in the town? If the goal is to keep the community safe by limiting student contact with Waterville residents then Colby should keep all students on Mayflower Hill.

Instead however, they place hundreds of students in Colby-owned housing located at the epicenter of town yet prohibit students from living in off-campus houses.

 

Olivia Siegel

Waterville

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