Quinnipiac University has moved to orange alert level due to rising cases of COVID-19. This brings a lot more restrictions to Quinnipiac, and is the most severe level Quinnipiac has reached to date.
“All on-ground graduate and undergraduate classes will be remote for the remainder of the week,” Quinnipiac University MD David Hill said in a release. “Through Friday, Nov. 6, all classes will be remote with the exception of the Frank Netter School of Medicine.”
This is the first time the university has gone fully remote this semester, which is a cause for concern for some students.
“I am happy I don’t live on campus,” said Jack Williams, a senior law major. “Thankfully, being off campus makes it so that even though I have remote classes, I am not panicked about potentially having to pack up my room any day now. I also have food here, so I don’t have to deal with picking up since the cafeteria isn’t open.”
In addition to on-campus students being uncertain how long they will be allowed to remain at school, there is also uncertainty around dining.
“I liked that when I was on main I could at least quickly walk through the cafeteria up until now,” said freshman political science major Peyton Marshall. “Now the cafeteria is take-out only so it will be harder to get food. It seems like it will be a lot stricter to be in there in terms of social distancing and getting food as well. The semester has progressed by slowly getting worse and worse.”
Dining has moved to take-out only until at least Friday, Nov. 6 as well.
“All food will be available for grab-and-go pickup only during regular hours of hour dining halls, Quinnipiac said in a statement. “Students will be able to enter dining halls following our established guidelines for social distancing and mask wearing.”
While main campus has had major restrictions this week, some students who do clinical for nursing and go to the North Haven campus had reason for concern as well.
“I think it will be fine, but I wonder what we’ll do for nursing as an alternative if it gets worse,” said senior nursing major Kayla Evans. “We have to do clinical in the hospital as well as classes at North Haven, which are obviously still on. Since a lot of it is hands on, I wonder what would happen if things continue to get worse. Right now it is fine, but I hope it improves and doesn’t negatively affect things more.”
Another major area of change is the universities emphasis on in-person events and social gatherings being paused, as well as student activities being restricted. Prior to today, things had been fairly normal in terms of seeing people in person and doing meetings without issues on campus. Now, that has all been paused until further notice, and students are encouraged to limit social interactions and leaving campus.
“Social interactions should be restricted to your residential family unit/pod to limit further spreading the virus,” Quinnipiac said in a statement. “All students are asked to remain inside of residence halls, apartments, or suites as much as possible, and if outdoors, please limit those interactions to those with your roommates.”
As we receive more information about COVID-19 cases in the area, Quinnipiac’s status will become more clear.