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An Ohio State Student Life staff member prepares a room in Houston House for student Move-In, which runs from Aug. 12-23. Rooms are being prepped with PPE kits and air purifiers.

Hundreds of Ohio State Welcome Leaders may not be swarming cars to welcome students during the 2020 Ohio State autumn semester Move-In, but that’s a good thing.

In order to promote physical distancing and help reduce COVID-19 concerns, the Office of Student Life has carefully coordinated a 12-day process to help students safely move into residence halls to start the academic year.

“Move-In has always been an all-hands-on-deck effort — it’s just ‘all hands on deck’ looks a little different this year,” said Aubrie Smith, the Student Life logistics manager who oversees Ohio State’s Move-In process.

This year, students signed up for a designated time from Aug. 12 to 23 to move in to their residence halls prior to the first day of classes on Aug. 25. They were also asked to bring only one or two people to assist them. Residence hall move-in openings were staggered to limit the number of people on each floor.

Students and those helping them move in are being asked to wear face masks and perform temperature and COVID-19 symptom self-assessments before arriving on campus. Sanitized moving carts are being provided for students.

“The top priority of the university through all of this is the health and safety of our students, faculty, staff and the greater Buckeye community,” said Dave Isaacs, Student Life communication and media relations manager.

“In Student Life, we are committed as well to what we call creating the extraordinary student experience. And we are investing a great amount of time, thought and energy into how we provide for that student experience in this COVID-19 reality.”

And while there will be no OWLs (Ohio State Welcome Leaders) helping students unpack cars and move into rooms, there will be volunteers on site to help direct students and answer questions. Residence hall staff will also be ready to help students with any questions or issues that come up.

The Ohio State app is also a great resource to check out along with the Safe and Healthy Buckeyes website for any COVID-19 related questions.

“Typically, Move-In is such an exciting event but at the end of the day we want to make sure students feel safe and comfortable moving into their new homes,” said Leah Wheeler, Student Life’s leadership and involvement specialist who oversees the OWL program. “We still hope to have a somewhat high-energy welcome for people to Ohio State, but it’s about having a welcoming and safe environment.”