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Inn at Virginia Tech to provide support to accommodate student housing needs

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Inn at Virginia TechThe Inn at Virginia Tech will provide three floors of guest rooms to the university in order to create a learning-centered living environment for approximately 325 students for the 2019-20 academic year that begins Aug. 10.

The inn will still maintain a limited number of guest rooms on the fourth floor for overnight guests. The Inn at Virginia Tech will return to is full service hotel and conference operations in June 2020.

This action follows Friday’s announcement of an agreement with the Holiday Inn Express and Suites Blacksburg-University Area to provide housing for 195 Virginia Tech first-year students.

With these two additional properties dedicated to student housing, combined with moderate extended housing strategies in existing residence halls that have been successfully deployed in the past, Virginia Tech will be able to meet the need for on campus housing for all its incoming class and returning students.

The use of The Inn at Virginia Tech and the Holiday Inn, located on and adjacent to campus, as student housing will provide students with a residential experience similar to that of a traditional residence hall experience. Each location will be staffed with professional personnel, as well as student resident advisors (RAs), and will offer student programming, support services, and other amenities consistent with the on-campus residential college experience.

Conferences and events already scheduled at the inn are expected to be held as planned. The Inn at Virginia Tech, the Office of Continuing and Professional Education, and the Office of Alumni Relations will work directly with groups and individuals to provide suitable housing alternatives, without additional costs, in order to ensure the continuation of all reunions, conferences, athletic events, and other events and visits.

The inn operates approximately 23,000 square feet of conference meeting space, and Preston’s, the hotel’s restaurant, will continue to operate in service to hotel guests and conference attendees. The inn and the university will work closely together to retain the inn’s workforce with a goal that no employee will lose a job.

The Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center falls within Outreach and International Affairs at Virginia Tech and is a Benchmark Resorts and Hotels managed property.

All individuals with reservations that may be impacted by this will be contacted directly. Questions may be directed to the Inn at Virginia Tech at 540-232-1600, the Office of Continuing and Professional Education at 540-231-7832, and the Office of Alumni Relations at 540-231-6285. Questions may be sent by email to [email protected].

Students and families with questions related to student housing may be directed to [email protected].

In other actions already completed, 97 returning students have decided to opt out of their housing contract and live in off-campus housing. In addition, 84 first-year students have elected to utilize this year’s on-campus housing exemption and live off campus. And 49 students have accepted one of three academic options offered last month — either electing to delay their admission to Virginia Tech, enroll at a Virginia community college next year, or engage in an alternative academic program during the fall or spring term — further reducing the demand for on-campus housing.

The Virginia Tech Off-Campus Housing Office is an important campus resource that can identifying non-university housing options within the community. The office can be reached at 540-231-3466 or by email, [email protected].

Further updates will be made available at the site for incoming students vt.edu/vt23.html.

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