The Showboat Hotel in Atlantic City will house some Stockton University students, as the college works to figure out ways to space students out during the pandemic.

The hotel will be home to 500 students. Freshman will remain on campus, but 300 single rooms and 100 double rooms will be available for returning or transfer students to reduce on-campus housing by 15%.

“Students really want to be able to have that peace of mind that they can live in singles and come to school,” says Steven Radwanski, executive director of residential life. “Each room has a flat-screen TV and as we know, the most important thing for our students is Wi-Fi, so it will have complimentary Wi-Fi There’s also laundry that’s provided for no additional costs, as well as parking.”

The university says that safety and security are major concerns when placing students off-campus. They have several protocols in place, including a ‘no hotel guest’ policy.

“The students will have their own private set of elevators, so no guests will be permitted and then the floors that students are on will be sectioned off from guests as well,” Radwanski says.

There are cameras on every floor. Campus staff, RAs and graduate students will also be living at the hotel.

Stockton officials say that they hope to provide virtual bonding experiences for the students to make them feel like they are part of a community.

“We think students who live at Showboat will develop a shared-experience like that and be able to talk about it for years to come,” Radwanski says.

The freshman living on campus will be spaced out as best as possible. Shared facilities like bathrooms will be cleaned twice daily. The school is also extending its check-in process to limit the number of students moving in at once.