Noah Tomlinson ’27 was looking forward to moving into the Global Village, located in Pine Hall, as a part of the Arabic House.
“I was living off campus, so I was like, ‘This sounds great. I’d love to be in a brand new dorm,’” he said.
Tomlinson decided to return to on-campus living to increase his convenience and connection to campus.
“That was a big thing for me, because I lived off campus, so I just wanted to be close to everything,” Tomlinson said. “Kind of ironic how it turned out.”
The College of William and Mary announced a temporary delay in the completion of Pine Hall, Cedar Hall and Oak Hall Thursday, July 31. This announcement impacted around 900 students.
The College has prioritized temporarily housing first-year students in both Richmond Hall and the Green and Gold Village. It relocated most upperclassmen to the Williamsburg Woodlands Hotel and Suites in Colonial Williamsburg for the remainder of the delay.
Tomlinson was frustrated when he heard the announcement and learned he’d been relocated to the Woodlands Hotel.
“Oh, I was pissed,” he said. “The biggest thing for me was that the months leading up to the announcement were dead silent.”
He added that the timing of the decision made the situation more difficult, since students like himself had already prepared for the upcoming semester under the assumption that they would be living on campus.
“So hearing that announcement a couple of weeks before we were supposed to move in was kind of shitty.” Tomlinson said. “It was the fact that they didn’t really give us any warning. Now, all of a sudden, I had to change my move-in plans.”
Brian Medina ’28 expressed a more optimistic view of the delay and living in the Woodlands Hotel.
“There were a couple of things I was concerned about, but otherwise, I was happy with it,” he said. “Living in a hotel sounded like it would be a good time.”
Despite his initial reservations, he quickly found reasons to look forward to the change.
“I honestly started feeling more optimistic about it because the hotel is far away, but it’s a hotel,” Medina said. “It’s going to be nice.”
Medina did take issue, though, with the shuttle service from the hotel to campus because he has found it to be inconsistent. According to Medina, the shuttle would sometimes show up late and not follow the predetermined route he was told it would.
“We were specifically told the shuttle would go from Woodlands to Sadler to Caf,” Medina said. “However, that hasn’t always been the case.”
He explained that some drivers have deviated from the expected route, creating uncertainty for the students relying on the shuttle service to get to campus.
“Apparently, there are some drivers that will take you to Caf first from Woodlands instead of Sadler, which hasn’t messed with my schedule yet, but I’m afraid [that it] could make me late for an event or class,” Medina went on to say.
Still, despite the issues he has faced with the transportation system, Medina emphasized that he has overall enjoyed the experience of living in the hotel.
“I would say living in the hotel is awesome,” he said. “It’s just that transportation is pretty tough.”
When asked to comment on Medina’s experience with the Woodlands shuttle, Assistant Director of Media Relations under University Communications, Nathan Warters, spoke on behalf of William and Mary Residence Life.
Warters reiterated how the College is working with contracted providers to equip relocated students with transportation. He acknowledged that problems can sometimes come up.
“As is the case with any mode of public transportation, unexpected delays and inconveniences sometimes occur,” Warters said. “With this in mind, we encourage everyone to build in extra time to reach their desired destination. We are in regular contact with our contracted providers to ensure any issues are addressed.”
Aafreen Ali ’26 was one of the Orientation Aides who recently welcomed new students onto campus.
Ali’s orientation group included commuter students and those who were supposed to be living in Cedar Hall. Because of the delay, her Cedar Hall students were split up and relocated between Richmond Hall and GGV.
“I think [the delay] definitely made us tap into our adaptability and flexibility a little bit more,” she said.
Since the delay divided her group, Ali found that, when going to orientation events, creating designated meeting spots between her students’ new locations worked best.
“That definitely helped us save some time in terms of running all the way to Richmond Hall and back to Sadler,” she said.
Ali thought that her orientation group took the situation well.
“I think for the most part, after those first couple of days, they really took it in stride and began bonding as a group,” she said. “It was just nice to see them, you know, conversing and having a little chit-chat between our million Kaplan-mandated activities.”
Ali felt orientation was an overall positive experience for herself and her students, in spite of the delay impacting things.
“Overall, it ended up being a positive experience,” she said. “You know, we did have to account for a couple of delays and new factors, [but] that’s just with every orientation. You got to stay flexible with it.”
