With Thanksgiving break approaching in less than a month, students living on campus are deciding if they’re leaving campus for the break or staying

on campus.

While some students, like Phoebe Brown, a freshman, would prefer to go home over break, others might want or need to stay on campus during break.

“I prefer to go because it’s a holiday and I want to spend it with my family,” Brown said.

Or for some students, like sophomore Christina Arnold, family doesn’t live that far away.

“Honestly, I live so close that there’s nothing that could make me stay,” Arnold said.

Residence halls close down Wednesday, Nov. 26 at 10 a.m. and reopen Sunday, Nov. 30 at noon.

Students who might need to stay on campus a bit longer before leaving on that Wednesday can talk to their hall director about extending their time on campus, said Tim Shaal, the senior associate director of Residence Life.

“If they need to stay a little bit late maybe because their rides are running late, they just need to talk to their hall director and they can work that out,” Shaal said.

While Thanksgiving break is only for five days, residence halls close down to allow the whole staff to go home for the holiday. The students who stay on campus for the break are very few.

“The halls close typically at Thanksgiving and winter break because a lot of students leave and go home, so as a result, we let our staff leave and go home,” Shaal said. “We might have a handful of students stay, so it doesn’t make sense to keep the whole staff and all of the halls open and heat them and those kinds of things when there’s very few people here.”

The only time Brown wouldn’t go home for break is if she couldn’t get to any family.

“If I absolutely couldn’t get to any family or any way to get there, I would probably stay,” Brown said.

In order for a student to remain on campus during the break, students need to fill out paperwork online, which can be found under the “My Room and Meals” tab in their

MyBGSU account.

“But we do have a process for people who do want to stay and that is online,” Shaal said. “There will be information on our website shortly that will give people directions on how and if they need to stay for student teaching or some of those kinds of things.”

The applications will be available from Monday, Nov. 3, through Friday, Nov. 14 at 5 p.m.

When a student chooses to remain on campus for the break, they’re expected to follow certain rules and expectations while here, Shaal said.

“One of the things we tell students who stay over break there are certain rules and expectations they’re expected to follow and we will have those on the website,” Shaal said. “It’ll remind them that food services will be limited and those kinds of things.”

As of right now, the cost of a student staying on campus for break has not been determined, but will be, depending on the costs of keeping the building open.