When Quinnipiac University reopened last week, campus life looked unfamiliar to returning students and incoming freshmen. It was nothing like what they had ever seen before.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, colleges have had to take extreme measures to ensure that students remain safe and limit the transmission of COVID-19 to the best of their abilities in order to ensure that the university can remain open.
A memo that was sent out to students announced that off-campus outdoor gatherings of more than 16 people would not be permitted, and indoor gatherings would be limited to fewer than 10 individuals.
It was also announced that Quinnipiac Public Safety would be partnering with the Hamden Police Department to crack down on these large gatherings. Swift and severe punishments have also been devised and will be implemented in an attempt to discourage students from violating the university established policies.
The new policies are strict, but that is what university officials have deemed necessary and in the best interest of keeping the campus open.
John Morgan, the associate vice president for public relations at Quinnipiac, said that the only way to ensure that students and staff can stay in person for the semester is to have minimal transmission of COVID-19, and the high stakes involved require strict guidelines and severe punishments in order to keep the campus open and safe.
“It’s up to each of us to behave safely, and to make sure that we don’t inflict on others the consequences of careless or inconsiderate behavior,” Morgan said. “Because of the high stakes involved, Quinnipiac is imposing strict limits this fall on group gatherings both on and off-campus.”
Lexi Pepe, a first-year Marketing major from Connecticut, said that she believes that the harsh punishments may impact some of the contact-tracing efforts that the university will have to adapt in the event of an outbreak.
“I believe some students may be less cooperative due to the fact that they will fear the consequences,” Pepe said. “However, I do think there are still plenty of genuine students who would let the school know what is occurring based on the fact they do not want the university to shut down again. It would just ruin it for everyone.”
Morgan said that the university believes that students understand the stakes involved, and that QU students will do the right thing and work together with each other, contact-tracers and the administration to minimize any potential outbreak that might occur.
“We are confident that our students realize that containing the spread of the virus is our top priority if we’re going to remain together in-person and in Hamden this semester,” Morgan said. “Our ability to do that depends largely on our students’ support and participation in important health measures, including contact tracing.”
Pepe added that she sees some upside to taking classes online rather than in-person.
“It makes students advocate for themselves more by emailing a professor and learning the material in your own time,” Pepe said.
Ashley Cotto, a senior Journalism major from New York who lives in a Quinnipiac-owned, off-campus house, said she doesn’t believe the policies are adequately stated.
“Personally, I think the rules are a little bit unclear,” Cotto said. “The people who live in dorms can have people from their residence halls come in and visit. If I’m not mistaken, the rule in the dorms is double the amount of people that live there. Crescent has six people, so if you double that you can have 12 people, but (according to the sticker on our front door) we’re not allowed to have anybody, which doesn’t truly make sense to me. If you’re going to say no visitors, then there should be no visitors for everyone.
“For us, we don’t know if it’s no guests, so nobody can come over during the day time, which a lot of schools are doing.”
Morgan clarified this rule when Cotto’s comments were brought to his attention.
“Students living in QU-owned housing can only have guests from the same residence hall, building or house visit their room, but the number of residents in any suite, apartment or house may not exceed 10 people or twice the occupancy of the room — whichever is the smaller occupancy,” Morgan said.
He then went on to give some examples and also confirmed that the maximum capacity in any room, suite or house is 10 people, even if six or eight people lived there.
“For example, a room with two assigned roommates — like in the Commons or Dana — may have up to a total of four Quinnipiac residents in the room at once. Eight assigned suitemates living in Mountainview would be able to have two guests in their suite.”
Morgan then directed anybody with questions to Quinnipiac’s website for further information.
Still, there’s a considerable amount of concern around the Quinnipiac community about these new regulations. Laura Solis is the mother of a Quinnipiac freshman and has found this semester’s experience difficult on her daughter.
“My daughter is a freshman at Quinnipiac,” Solis said. “She’s told me she’s very lonely, has never felt so lonely before in her life. She lives in a suite-style dorm, which is better because at least she’s with five other girls, but she tells me she still feels lonely.”
Solis also said her daughter has told her that if she had the chance to rethink her decision to live on campus, she may have made a different choice.
“She told me the other day, ‘If I knew I’d be stuck here like this, I probably would have opted to go virtual,’” Solis said
Solis added that she has another daughter who is a freshman at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT.
“My other daughter, who goes to Sacred Heart, has told me she feels that Sacred Heart is going to get the virus way faster than Quinnipiac, because Quinnipiac has implemented these lockdown policies,” Solis said. “My other daughter has told me that she doesn’t feel safe at Sacred Heart.”
One potential issue some parents are worried about is that, if there is an outbreak, students who have been following the rules may get unfairly caught up in the punishment net without having done anything wrong.
“Some of my daughter’s suitemates are more liberal in regards to their positions on the policy, and I’m concerned that if there are repercussions I am concerned that my daughter will be penalized even though she has followed the rules to the letter of the law,” Solis said.
When asked if she feels that parents are rallying together to collectively support each others’ kids, Solis answered with one word — undoubtedly — before expanding on her thinking.
“At Quinnipiac, I feel that it is definitely a family,” Solid said. “When my daughter first committed to QU and I joined the parents Facebook group, I had many people congratulate us and welcome us to the Bobcat family. I can honestly say that this has brought our parents together as a stronger unit.”
Grace Portvliet is a first-year management major from New Jersey in the 3+1 BS/MBA program, and she said she believes that the punishment, while harsh, is ultimately necessary.
“I feel that the punishments for not following restrictions are necessary to maintain everyone’s safety,” Portvliet said. “Even if an individual breaks the guidelines, they should be able to receive back their funds spent on room and board.”
For the most part, the system in place is doing its job so far. Quinnipiac still hasn’t found a single positive case among students attending in-person classes, though there have been instances of broken protocols. Stephen Sweet, the director of student content and community standards, explained that while these gatherings haven’t caused an outbreak yet, they’re being dealt with in a manner that administration finds appropriate.
“There have been reports of students off campus, and they have been addressed either through warnings, or will be addressed through our formal conduct process,” Sweet said.
(Additional reporting by Marianna Rappa)