Students began moving into their dorms at Southern Miss on August 5. Students this year had to do this in waves as a way to social distance and remain safe as they began the semester. 

Sirena Cantrell, the Dean of Students and Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, said the campus is asking students to wear masks and has a schedule to reduce the amount of students on campus at one time.

“We’re sanitizing between the times students come in, so every hour and a half we are taking the time to sanitize and wipe down close spaces and high touch points,” Cantrell said. “[We are] just trying to keep people safe, keep people comfortable and have people ready to come back.”

Cantrell said Southern Miss has about 2,900 students booked to live in dorms.

“As we go on throughout the days, we will call students to make sure they are still coming or if they’ve changed their minds,” Cantrell said. “We have had some students change their mind because of the virus, and we understand that.”

Cantrell said there are some spaces being held for quarantine isolation if a dorm faces some positive cases. There is also a process in place for students living on campus to follow if they do test positive.

“We will help them go into isolation and make sure they are taken care of during the quarantine period,” Cantrell said. 

Cantrell said compared to other move-in days, this one has been much more spread out. New students, instead of moving in all at once, are now moving in over a five day period, and returning students are given three days to move in.