VESTAL, New York, May 15, 2026, 16:01 EDT
- Binghamton University’s Move Out Project is taking in student donations right as the busiest move-out period hits.
- Most non-senior students in residence halls are up against a checkout deadline set for Friday morning, driving the push.
- Steel is rising at the $60 million University Hall project, which the university now targets for a spring 2028 opening.
This week, Binghamton University volunteers pitched six collection tents around campus, aiming to intercept unwanted student belongings before they hit the dumpsters during end-of-semester move-out. According to WBNG, the Binghamton Move Out Project spent three days gathering non-perishable food, personal care products, clothing, and small appliances, all destined for redistribution within the local community.
Timing is key here. Most Binghamton students living in residence halls—except for seniors—had to be out by 10 a.m. Friday, the Residential Life office said. Graduating seniors, though, get until 10 a.m. Sunday, right after commencement. It’s in that tight window that so many still-good items end up as garbage.
MOP, short for the Move Out Project, relies on volunteers to gather items left behind by students departing college housing and pass them along to local charities. According to the university, the group kept over 34,000 pounds of material—everything from clothing and food to books and electronics—out of landfills during its Spring 2025 collection.
Christina Fuller, who started the project and graduated from Binghamton, described move-out to WBNG as “an insanely busy time of year”—students are juggling finals, graduation, and whatever belongings they can cram into a car. She emphasized that streamlining donations was key to tackling the chaos. Wbng
No longer just a modest end-of-semester effort, the operation has expanded sharply. Binghamton University notes that Fuller started the project in 2018 as an undergrad after noticing move-out piles filled with salvageable items. These days, the initiative draws on a volunteer force of more than 140, has a dedicated space in the University Union, and collaborates with a growing list of community partners.
Casey Wall, who heads Residential Life and Housing at Binghamton, described the project as “an exciting part of residence hall move-out.” For Chris Harasta, co-coordinator, the initial appeal was cutting down on waste. But what’s kept him involved, he said, is witnessing the impact these donated items have on recipients. Binghamton University
There’s still time for students to donate. Campus bins stay open until May 19. Off-campus students, though, can schedule a pickup or make a drop-off appointment up to May 31—but they’ll need to give at least three days’ notice to lock in a pickup, the university said in its announcement.
While the donation campaign ramps up, construction is visible on campus: the steel skeleton of University Hall now stands on the Vestal site. According to WNBF, the $60 million project comes in at four stories and 90,000 square feet, set to house 33 classrooms, a 300-seat lecture hall, and another that seats 180, boosting capacity by over 1,900 seats.
The building has slipped past its earlier schedule. University officials had mentioned June 2027 as the finish line, but according to WNBF, the timeline now stretches into spring 2028. Binghamton’s facilities office, on its part, puts January 2028 as the construction goal for the lecture hall.
At last year’s groundbreaking, University President Harvey Stenger put it plainly: “We needed more space like this.” For JoAnn Navarro, who was vice president for operations at the time, the new lecture hall wasn’t just about extra seats—she pointed out it would accommodate thousands of students for decades. Notably, it’s the first SUNY building to use a design-build process, combining design and construction into a single workflow. Binghamton University
The move-out drive faces its own constraints: only items that donation partners want get accepted, and anything missed or deemed unsuitable might still go to waste. On the construction front, University Hall’s debut has already been postponed once, so timing remains uncertain until the building’s shell is sealed and crews can focus inside.
