The Office of Residential Life announced a new checkout policy to its residents by email on Wednesday.

Now, students will have to tell Residential Life (ResLife) the hour during which they plan to leave campus for the summer. A Residential Advisor (RA) or Residential College Director (RCD) will come to their room at that time to pick up students’ room keys and to do a sweep of the room to make sure nothing is left behind.

ResLife may fine students who fail to list their departure times by April 22, although students will be able to change the times after the fact.

The plan may save students from the fees that ResLife charges for leaving a mess or trash in rooms after leaving.

Many students say that despite ResLife’s good intentions, the policy is inconvenient and stressful.

“I don’t like [the policy]. It seems like it has a lot of hoops. I just want to hand in my key when I’m ready to go,” junior Degian Ghebermicael said. “My flight’s usually right after my final exam, and I’m ready to leave and I’m rushing.”

ResLife employees hope to make the checkout process more efficient in an effort to turn rooms over to summer residents more quickly.

“We wanted to make it more streamlined for students. When [RAs and RCDs] are going around [to check rooms], we’re hoping students are gone when they say they’ll be gone,” Mary Elliott, the associate director of ResLife, said. She also pointed to the increasing popularity of summer programs as part of the reason the checkout process needs to be expedited.

In the old checkout process, students dropped their keys off at ResLife as they were leaving campus. RAs and RCDs did sweeps of the rooms on every floor and building after the residents left.

Some RAs are concerned about the policy, which requires that they check rooms throughout the days during finals week.

“When they introduced this to us there were some questions, but it was like, ‘so that’s putting a lot of pressure on us,’” one junior RA in the College of Arts & Sciences, who wished to remain anonymous because he is a ResLife employee, said about a meeting in which the policy was announced. “There was a sense of quiet outrage because it means we have to do a lot more work during the most hectic time of the school year.”

RAs were not consulted before the policy was announced to the student body.

Although many students think the policy is inconvenient, some do support the financial aspect of this policy.

“I think it will definitely give students a heads up for potential fees,” sophomore Vinoo Ganesh said.

Ghebermicael was concerned that even with the sweep, he would leave something in his room and be unable to get back in.

Elliott says that if students have delayed flights or other last minute changes, ResLife will be flexible. She advises students to contact their RCDs if such a circumstance occurs.