BOSTON — Students who were living in the roughly 50 UMass Boston dorm rooms damaged Monday night have until Saturday to collect the rest of their belongings so the university can make repairs.
Items not picked up from East Residence Hall will be discarded, according to the university.
UMass Boston said they are working on longer-term housing for students whose rooms are significantly damaged after a sprinkler pipe burst Monday night and flooded several floors.
Students on campus tell Boston 25 News, they are frustrated and feel like a lot is still up in the air.
“I’m an out-of-state student, so I really have nowhere to go,” Noah Gendebien said. “We’re all just trying to figure things out.”
Boston 25 News spoke with one student who was rolling his suitcase across campus Friday after staying with a friend.
“I’m just going to drop some stuff off at the common room over in West Hall right now and then I’m going to take the train back home and hopefully it gets fixed over the long weekend,” Dylan Yepes said.
After the incident on Monday, Students were given the option by the university to go to the Charles River Mount Ida campus in Newton, but many tell us they haven’t been staying there.
“It’s not well equipped with any materials like sheets, bedding,” Vincent Caruso said. “It’s just not optimal, and the bus system sometimes - I heard it can be late, and we’re athletes too, so that just can’t really fly.”
New Jersey mother Christine Ware said her daughter Carly’s room was not damaged, but she still doesn’t have a permanent place to stay.
Ware said when her daughter was bussed to Newton, there were no more beds available, so Carly stayed in a hotel Monday night and is now staying at her roommate’s house an hour away.
“I can’t afford to put her in a hotel long-term, and they’re not offering them anything long-term,” Ware said. “She’s going to be Ubering to campus and I’m going to be footing the bill.”
In an update from UMass Boston on Friday morning, the university said progress has been made inside the residence hall, but there’s still more repair work to be done.
Because of that, there is no timeline yet for when students will be allowed back into non-damaged rooms.
Any updates will be posted to the university’s website.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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