What to Know
- Stony Brook University has experienced "significant flooding" damage from storms that hit the tri-state area Sunday night – adding stress and uncertainty to the start of a new school year for students.
- In an email sent out to students, Rick Gatteau, Stony Brook’s Vice President of Students Affairs and Catherine-Mary Rivera, the school’s Assistant Vice President for Campus Residences clarified that while most of the campus was operational, certain residence halls in the on-campus Mendelson community experienced “significant flooding.”
- Gatteau and Rivera also wrote that the school will be offering $5,000 to continuing undergraduate students who had not yet moved into their assigned residence halls to give up their rooms for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Stony Brook University on Long Island has experienced "significant flooding" damage from storms that hit the tri-state area Sunday night – adding stress and uncertainty to the start of a new school year for students.
In an email sent out to students, Rick Gatteau, Stony Brook’s Vice President of Students Affairs and Catherine-Mary Rivera, the school’s Assistant Vice President for Campus Residences clarified that while most of the campus was operational, certain residence halls in the on-campus Mendelson community experienced “significant flooding.”
“Our Campus Operations and Maintenance teams are on scene and working hard assessing the damage and determining the timeline for repairs,” Gatteau and Rivera wrote.
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Gatteau and Rivera also wrote that the school will be offering $5,000 to continuing undergraduate students who had not yet moved into their assigned residence halls to give up their rooms for the 2024-2025 academic year. Students who choose this option would be eligible for on-campus housing during the 2025-2026 academic year should they need an on-campus residence in the future.
In addition, Stony Brook announced that they will be tripling dorms – meaning that some rooms designed to hold two students will now be holding three “throughout the year” according to a statement posted on Stony Brook’s website. Students who are placed in a triple dorm will receive a 15% discount on the room rate credited to their school account.
This isn’t the first time that Stony Brook has experienced housing struggles – in late May, a Newsday report said that at least 300 incoming freshmen had been put on a housing waitlist after more students than anticipated committed to the school for the 2024-2025 school year.
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The school has cancelled dormitory move-ins for Monday and Tuesday – and it is not year clear if the flooding will impact future move-in dates or the freshmen orientation. In an emailed message to students, Stony Brook’s Vice President for Enterprise Risk Management and Chief Security Lawrence Zacarese wrote that “there has been no change to the start date of for the Fall semester’s first day of classes: Monday, August 26th, 2024.”
Zacarese also wrote that both the Stony Brook University Hospital and the Long Island State Veterans home remain open and are operating on normal schedules.
Stony Brook has had similar issues with flooding in the past. In 2021, several of the school’s dormitories were flooded as the result of Hurricane Ida – leaving on campus residents in limbo with regards to their housing.
Stony Brook University officials said in a statement: “The Safety of the entire campus community is of our top priority and we are working to as quickly and as thoroughly as possible to assess the situation and are committed to minimizing disruptions for students who are looking forward to welcoming to campus as soon as possible.”
