Despite An Outbreak, Colleges Stay Course

University of New Haven is sending orders of Insomnia Cookies to students in one of its dorms — after ordering a two-week quarantine after campus Covid-19 cases leapt from 1 to 50 in one week.

As of now, UNH does not foresee moving to a more virtual format or limiting on-campus life further. Despite the one outbreak, UNH and other colleges and universities conclude that their pandemic measures have been succeeding this fall, so they’re committing to staying the course in continuing their policies this coming spring.

The UNH dorm — which is known as Winchester Hall and houses 222 students — has been under the two-week quarantine since Tuesday. An additional 30 students are now occupying isolation beds after testing positive for Covid. And 117 off campus students are quarantining at home.

But the spread of the virus hasn’t dramatically altered the university’s approach to on-campus Covid safety, according to UNH’s Covid-19 Coordinator Summer McGee. McGee said that contact tracing has revealed that most Covid-19 cases have been coming from unsanctioned off-campus events, rather than from classes or dining areas on campus.

“What we’ve learned through our contact tracing is that these cases primarily have come through off campus social gatherings … not on our campus,” said McGee. ​“So I think we really have to double down now that our students really have to understand, on campus or off campus, that they have to wear their masks and remain social-distanced.”

The UNH outbreak mirrored similar ones at campuses across the country. But not here in New Haven, where officials at colleges and universities report that their pandemic policies have largely succeeded in containing the virus on campus and enabling a mix of in-person and remote learning.

Yale and Southern Connecticut State University both recently announced plans to enter the spring semester once again de-densified dorms; a hybrid of on campus, off campus, and remote students; and open (though socially-distanced) communal spaces.

Based on the semester so far, schools have concluded that frequent Covid-19 testing works, as does eliminating opportunities for off-campus travel.

A Domino Effect

Despite the full-dorm quarantine, McGee argued that UNH has overall had a strong semester so far. ​“The first six weeks of the semester [before the outbreak], we only had a handful of cases,” said McGee. ​“All of our policies work as long as everybody abides by them.”

According to an email sent to the university community, a student living in UNH’s Winchester had attended an ​“unauthorized large gathering” off campus. Through contact tracing, the university determined that students living in Winchester had been exposed to five positive Covid cases, according to the email. Administrators proceeded to place the dorm under quarantine.

This mandate means that students in Winchester are required to remain in their rooms, according to McGee; they can have in-person interactions only with their roommates.

In addition, as of Wednesday, all of the university’s 30 isolation beds — a separate unit from Winchester Hall — are occupied by Covid-positive students.

The university has discovered 50 positive cases of Covid in the past seven days, according to its Covid-19 dashboard. Twenty of those students are self-isolating off campus.

This spike in detected Covid cases comes just after the university decided to increase the amount of viral testing it performs. Last week, before the outbreak, UNH began testing 15 – 20 percent of students and staff per week — an increase from its previous practice of testing 5 percent of the community — at the request of the state’s health department.

McGee said the university takes social distancing violations seriously. By the seventh week of the semester, the University has received 250 reports of such violations and has resolved 150 cases. Some students have received warnings, according to McGee; a handful have been kicked off campus after multiple instances of not social distancing.

But ​“we don’t want to create a culture of blame,” said McGee.

In order to boost morale, UNH is delivering Insomnia Cookies and pizza to students in quarantine and isolation. In addition to more serious social distancing Town Halls and meetings, staff are checking in with students and organizing virtual events at Winchester to keep everyone engaged.

“They’re disappointed,” McGee said of the students, ​“but I think for the most part they understand that this is part of living in a pandemic and sometimes we have to do these things.”

Yale’s Culture Change

Other universities in the area haven’t yet seen numbers like University of New Haven’s this week. But that’s not necessarily a result of more responsible behavior among students.

At Yale, twice-weekly testing for both on and off-campus students makes it more likely that cases of the virus are caught before spreading among too many students. The university detected five cases of Covid this past week and a total of 29 cases since Aug. 1, among both students and staff.

Grace Kang, a first-year counselor at Yale, said that administrators have been responsive to feedback about the way that social distancing is enforced on campus.

“It was very difficult the first few weeks,” Kang said. ​“A lot of those rule breakings didn’t really come with consequences.”

But two or three weeks into the semester, Kang said, the administration began to respond to feedback.

The university instituted a new undergraduate position, PHEPs (Public Health Education for Peers), who are ​“working to promote harm-reduction through education around public health guidelines,” according to Yale’s website.

Between PHEPs, graduate student public health coordinators, first-year counselors, and administrators, ​“there is a lot more dialogue that’s happening now than there was ever before,” said Kang. While most social distancing violations continue to result in verbal warnings, she said she feels more confident about whom to talk to when she notices her first year students not social distancing.

And Kang added that in her experience, beyond enforcement measures, a strengthening sense of community and public health awareness among new students on campus has made dorm life feel more safe.

Students are increasingly realizing the consequences of breaching social distancing, Kang said. ​“No one wants to be the guy that shut down Yale.”

She added that over time, first-year students — who currently make up a majority of students in on-campus dorms — have begun to feel a stronger sense of responsibility towards their dorm communities. ​“I think part of it is getting close to your peers,” she said. ​“You recognize that you have a larger significance here.”

At Yale, one first-year student, who declined to provide her name, said that she perceives enforcement of social distancing regulations to be relatively low-stakes, mainly involving verbal warnings from undergraduate or graduate student peers.

But overall, students are being conscientious, she said. ​“Even when people are being reckless, they’re more concerned than one would assume.”

The student added that although the college’s biweekly testing schedule for all students makes it easier to catch cases of Covid before they become widespread, it also contributes to a ​“false sense of security” among students.

University Provost Scott Strobel attributed the semester’s success to a sense of mutual responsibility on campus.

“Students, staff, and faculty have been very mindful that they are living, working, and studying in a communal space. There is an overall understanding that our actions can truly affect the wellbeing of others,” he wrote in an email. ​“We are heartened to see everyone’s commitment to wearing masks, washing hands frequently, and social distancing.”

SCSU Shhhh

In early September, Southern began testing 25 percent of its student population per week — an increase from its previous commitment to testing 10 percent. At the university, three commuter students self-reported positive Covid results between Oct. 4 and Oct. 6. In total, 29 positive cases have been detected, mostly among commuter students.

SCSU spokesperson Patrick Dilger said that the fall semester has been a success so far, partly due to the university’s flexibility and close monitoring of conditions.

“Intensive planning during the summer that focused on reopening the campus for the fall, monitoring and containing the virus and the capacity to close the university on short notice gave us a blueprint to follow during the semester and it has worked well so far,” Dilger wrote in an email.

He wrote that SCSU’s Covid numbers have remained low because ​“compliance with our social distancing and mask-wearing protocols has been very good.”

Southern students said that campus life feels quieter than usual.

“We’re pretty locked down here. It’s a quiet year,” said Jason Edwards, a commuter student. ​“That’s the one thing I don’t like. Usually there’s four times the amount of students here.”

“It’s kind of boring because there isn’t very much going on,” said Sofia Rositani, who lives on campus.

Students said they feel safe on campus, even if day-to-day life is a little more inconvenient.

Rositani said it’s easy to forget to put on her mask when she’s leaving her room to go out into the hall. Dorms aren’t spaces that are built for social distancing.

New Haven’s universities have ​“de-densified” their on-campus dorms to around 60 percent capacity, but for many students, shared bathrooms and separate dining areas mean that in order to do virtually anything outside of their bedrooms, they need to remember to wear masks.

No Breaks Ahead

As the fall semester carries on, UNH, Southern, Albertus Magnus College, and Yale all plan to open dorms in the spring — with some calendar adjustments.

Per the advice of the state’s health department, all four schools plan to cancel spring break. Yale and Southern are delaying the beginning of their semesters.

Southern Connecticut State University announced in September that its spring semester would begin on Jan. 26, one week later than originally planned. And this week, Yale released a decision to start spring semester classes on Feb. 1, approximately two weeks after the university typically kicks off the spring.

On Friday morning, Albertus announced a similarly delayed start to the spring semester on January 25th, a week and a half later than planned. But the college is adding a new three-week ​“intersession” course period between January 4 and January 22. The intersession period is optional, online-only, and tuition-free for students enrolled in the spring semester. Students can earn 3 course credits.

UNH has not yet announced a finalized timeline for the spring semester.

While schools are canceling spring break, both Albertus and Yale plan to disperse one-day breaks from classes throughout the semester. At Albertus, these days will be themed, with programming such as a teach-in for Martin Luther King Day, an Experiential Learning Day, and a ​“self-care day” for rest.

Currently, SCSU dorms are filled at 60 percent capacity, housing about 1,500 students. Dilger said he anticipates that if public health conditions in Connecticut remain consistent, a similar number of students will be able to live on campus in the spring.

Both schools are eliminating spring break in order to minimize opportunities to travel in and out of New Haven, ensuring that students who may unwittingly contract Covid at home or elsewhere, outside the jurisdiction of university regulations, don’t return back to campus. A similar rationale is prompting both universities to close campus dorms for the remainder of the fall semester after Thanksgiving break.

In addition, the Yale Daily News reported that Yale is delaying the start of the spring semester with the hope that much of flu season — and a potential ​“dual pandemic” — can be avoided.

Students at Southern and Yale shared mixed feelings about the lack of a spring break next semester.

“I’m actually very upset about it,” said Sofia Rositani, a student at SCSU. She had to cancel her spring break plans to visit family in Nashville and Florida. ​“I was saving up money for it, too,” she said of the trip.

“It’s a shame to not have breaks in the middle of the semester,” said first-year Yale student Gyuhwan Choi. But he said he trusted the university decision as a means of limiting travel.

Jason Edwards, another Southern student, was less irked by the cancellation. ​“We’re in the midst of a pandemic,” he said. ​“At this point, I’m at a point where I’m just accepting things as they’re happening.”

This story was produced with financial support from Solutions Journalism Network.

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• 2 Campuses, Week 1: Zoom vs. Zip
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• Yalies Begin 14-Day Dorm Quarantines
• Future Mechanics Return To Class In Person
• In Car Lab, They’re Geared Up For Covid
• Prof, Students Forge ​“Hybrid” Routine
• Coronavirus Takes A Seat