Services make it easy for students to move out
By Jennifer Lin
June 3, 2008 10:37 p.m.
Moving out from residential housing is often a daunting task for students and staff alike as the school year nears its end. Students have to balance studying and packing as UCLA prepares to empty for the summer.
But it’s not only students who have problems with moving out. Rob Kadota, an assistant director for the Office of Residential Life, said students sometimes forget or simply decide not to return the laundry carts, which are provided as a service to move items in bulk, in the almost inevitable “crush” that occurs toward the end of finals week.
“No matter how much we can cajole or encourage (students), Thursday and Friday are clearly the worst days. Anything students can do to not wait until the last minute would help,” Kadota said.
The laundry carts are only some of the ways UCLA helps ease students out of the dorms.
ORL is providing once-used boxes from dining and room services, which previously held items such as vegetables and toilet paper, for free for students to use as packing materials.
The Clothes Out Project will also continue this year, with Goodwill donation bins being set up around the dorms. Goodwill accepts most items, from clothes to lightly used appliances, but will not take perishable goods.
Items left behind in rooms do not automatically get donated. Instead, anything with value is logged in with university police and eventually kept under lost and found.
Students can also store items they will need for the next school year with Collegeboxes, which has an exclusive first-time contract as the only private moving company affiliated with UCLA this year. After purchasing boxes either in person or online, students can choose to have their items put in storage or shipped home.
“We’re providing curbside pickup service at Hedrick and Sunset from June 11 to 13, so students can drop off their boxes and have them brought back during move-in or delivered to a UPS shipping location,” said Robert Saunders, local service provider for Collegeboxes.
UCLA also offers Zipcars for hourly rentals to students who need to move their items out before a deadline and are unable to get a car otherwise. In addition, UCLA Transportation Services will set up special shuttles to take students from the residential halls to the FlyAway bus station on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of next week, according to Phil Hampton, a university spokesman.
Though students typically move in with one carload, they also accumulate items throughout the year and should aim to pare down their items as they leave.
As a student who lives in the San Gabriel Valley, Waynesford Sheu, a second-year psychobiology student, is starting to move out this weekend.
“I’m bringing my bigger items like my TV home earlier, so there’s not as much stuff to pack later,” Sheu said.
Kadota also recommends that students take study breaks to clean up and pack so even those with later finals can be ready to leave quickly.
Students who have to stay until the end of the week are trying to find ways to avoid the traffic.
Dorothy Xiao, a first-year undeclared student, plans on leaving “very late” Thursday night after her final on the same day.
“I know a lot of people will be moving out at night, so I want to wait until the traffic dies down,” Xiao said.
Kadota said it is usually much easier to move out in the morning than at night.
Saranya Kalaiselvan, a second-year bioengineering student, works until Friday of finals week but cannot stay past the normal deadline because her last final is on Wednesday. She will be asking her parents to pick up most of her belongings after her final and then take the train home after work.
“It’s inconvenient that cars can’t come into the turnarounds on Thursday and Friday, so I don’t want to wait until then (to move out),” said Kalaiselvan.
