Mobilizing the Community

In March, Juilliard made the difficult decision to close the residence hall.

As the news about COVID-19 worsened in early March, Juilliard made the difficult decision to limit access to—and then close altogether—the Meredith Willson Residence Hall as the school moved to remote learning. Kevin Filipski, Juilliard’s program editor, spoke to residence hall staffers Todd Porter and Elizabeth Scott- Francis about the process of working with the 320 students living in the residence hall—most of whom were off-campus for spring break—to make sure they and their belongings were safely secured, all within a whirlwind 10-day period.

By Kevin Filipski

How did you start tackling this huge job?
Todd Porter: Decisions were made very quickly,
so there wasn’t a lot of time to prepare. We wanted to make sure students could get their belongings and that we had options for students who were away on spring break. One of the biggest priorities was
to help students who didn’t have as obvious a place to go due to travel restrictions and other issues.
And we wanted to make sure those who were here had plans in place and that those who were away for a spring break would be able to return to the city to pack their belongings. If they didn’t in either case, we figured out how we could assist so they weren’t putting themselves or anyone else at risk. We also had to figure out how to connect them to local resources and advocate on their behalf.
Elizabeth Scott-Francis: Because we had never experienced anything like this, we prioritized both the level of care we gave to students in the process of moving out and also how we communicated to those who weren’t able to come back—or felt unsafe coming back to New York City, since things were getting much worse then—how we were taking care of their belongings during this hectic moment in their lives. We worked with our partners at Lincoln Center to pack up and store/ship belongings for those unable to get back to campus, either arranging for immediate shipment or for long-term storage with our off-campus storage partner.

How did it work once the decision was made to close the building?
Elizabeth: We tried really hard to make sure students had access to things they needed. We set up a station in the lounge with cardboard boxes and masking tape so students could get items at their leisure to minimize contact with businesses or with one another.

Todd: We normally work with a storage company that students pay to pick up their stuff, so in this case we worked with them to make sure there would be adequate pricing. We also worked with the finance office to ensure that students quickly received a prorated refund, which was essential for those who needed to find an apartment or other temporary housing situation.

How did the students deal with it?
Elizabeth: To minimize contact, students unable to get back to campus asked their friends to pack up their belongings. I’m fairly new here but I thought that was an awesome mobilization of the community: Seeing people so willing to help out their friends and classmates and, in some cases, people they didn’t know all that well, helping in this unprecedented situation was really powerful. Walking through the halls and making sure everyone had what they needed, I saw students really supportive of one another; there was a lot of information sharing and care and concern for each other. That was very powerful. Todd: We’ve gotten a number of appreciative comments from students and their parents. Obviously this was not a decision that anybody wanted to make, but they appreciated that we were willing to put their health and the community at the forefront. It was very disrupting, of course, but by and large, the students maintained a positive attitude as we worked together to figure out how do we get this done.

Todd Porter, director of residence life, has worked at Juilliard for six years; Elizabeth Scott-Francis, assistant director of residence life, started in the fall; both are still holding down the fort in the residence hall