For months, nearly 3,000 miles has separated Benjamin Beckman, a Yale University music major in California, from his French horn back in Connecticut. The instrument was left behind in the hasty shutdown of colleges across the U.S. this spring as coronavirus hit—along with piles of laundry, snacks and personal belongings gathering dust for months in shuttered dorms at campuses across the country.
Return to sender?
Mr. Beckman, who lives in Los Angeles, was on spring break when Yale decided to close its campus. Finally, a friend was able to fetch the horn—worth thousands of dollars and crucial to his studies—from his dorm and recently shipped it back to him.
“No one was thinking about not going back to school” when leaving campus in the spring for vacation, the 19-year-old said. “That was unfathomable.”
Colleges’ pandemic-induced springtime shutdowns hit many sour notes. Students at some schools were given just a few days to pack up and ship out their belongings. Others who were already away from campus when notice of the imminent closures came were suddenly separated from their belongings, with no reunion in sight.
Benjamin Beckman, a Yale University music major, with his French horn.
Photo: Beckman familyWith just weeks left until some colleges expect to reopen campuses, there is a hectic push to get rid of the old stuff to make way for the new. Some of what is left—from bicycles to furniture—may be tossed or donated.
“It’s an insane logistical challenge,” said Mr. Beckman.
Some schools have allowed students back this summer to pack up, allotting each a few frenzied hours to break down their dusty dorm rooms, leaving little time for reminiscing or tidy folding. Some schools packed and shipped bikes and other gear back to students, trying not to mix up roommates’ hairbrushes or t-shirts.
Many students had their possessions packed up and stowed on or near campus, hoping to reclaim them this fall—or whenever they are allowed to move back. At some colleges, students have grumbled about storage fees; others report their items were sent to the wrong person, or are missing altogether.
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A Yale dean sent an email in mid-March, after the college announced spring semester would be held online, giving students a day to request that essential items such as passports, laptops and critical study materials be sent to them.
“P.S. I am concerned that some of you may have pets hidden in your rooms,’’ the dean wrote. “Now is definitely the time to ’fess up” to arrange a rescue mission.
In the rush, Cassidy Arrington, a 19-year-old in Philadelphia, said Yale shipped a stranger’s iPad to her. She found its true home by posting a photo of it on Twitter. The owner “had to be stressing out,” she said.
Yale spokeswoman Karen Peart said staff worked as hard as they could, under constraints, to reunite students with their belongings while protecting the community’s health. “We regret any mix-ups, and worked quickly to address student concerns,” she said.
Later in the spring, Yale said students could have the school pack up their rooms, for storage or shipping home, to domestic addresses at no cost. Or students could ask for a two-hour appointment to come back and do it themselves over the summer.
One of Mr. Beckman’s roommates, Patrick Yang, drove in July to Yale from his home near Minneapolis—about 40 hours round-trip—to pack up their dorm room. They won’t be going back to campus this fall, because Yale is prioritizing other class years besides sophomores for residential housing. The roommates worried professional movers wouldn’t be able to sort out what belonged to whom.
Mr. Beckman's French horn was left behind when his college shut down.
Photo: Ida Brooks“The fear was I’d end up with half of Ben’s stuff and then have to mail it to the West Coast, which would be more expensive than me driving out,” Mr. Yang said. “Now I have peace of mind that come Minnesota winter, I won’t be stuck without my jacket,” he said. The friend who fetched Mr. Beckman’s French horn shipped it to him on Thursday morning, wrapped carefully to avoid dents in transit. The price: $155.
Syracuse University in New York invited students back to campus in late May and early June to retrieve belongings after they left hurriedly in mid-March. One problem: Lots of things had vanished.
More than 100 students reported items had disappeared or were misplaced when Syracuse staff and contractors packed up their rooms.
“Disappointingly, it appears that some of the very individuals we trusted with this task,” the school said in a letter sent to families, “are likely responsible for the thefts and missing items.”
Boston University sought to reunite students with tens of thousands of boxes of their belongings.
Photo: Cydney Scott for Boston University PhotographyThe school apologized for the added stress, said local police were investigating, and instituted new security measures such as cameras in residence hall elevators and more restricted access to storage spaces.
But Syracuse also said it can’t serve as a storage facility forever. It is preparing campus for students to return later this summer. If students didn’t retrieve belongings by July 27, the school said items would be considered abandoned and donated or discarded. The school said if it finds jewelry, credit cards or other valuables, it will try to safeguard the items and contact students.
Boston University, with one of the biggest undergraduate housing complexes in the country, sought to reunite 10,000 students with tens of thousands of boxes. It said it would ship items to U.S. undergraduates at no cost, and would store items for domestic and international students returning to campus housing in the fall.
Students who wanted to fetch their belongings during a June window had to abide by rules for wearing masks, social distancing and limiting the number of people on each dorm floor at a time.
Katie Urdan's desk at Washington University was still as she had left it.
Photo: Katie UrdanWhen Katie Urdan, a rising sophomore at Washington University in St. Louis, returned to her dorm room in June, after months away, it was like traveling back in time. She found moldy apples and oranges, as well as a hamper full of dirty laundry. There was also a winter coat mocking the 90-degree heat and makeup that recalled a time she bothered to get dressed up.
“It was very much still lived in, but kind of frozen for three months,” said Ms. Urdan, a 20-year-old who had gone home to San Francisco for spring break when her school shut down—packing just one carry-on to get her through vacation.
She found a cheap plane ticket and said going back to clear out her room in June gave her some sense of completion for an academic year that ended abruptly. “I wanted to be the person to take my photos off my wall,” she said.
“I didn’t particularly need any of the things in my dorm room,” Ms. Urdan said. “But I wanted them.”
Write to Leslie Brody at leslie.brody@wsj.com and Melissa Korn at melissa.korn@wsj.com
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