As Quinnipiac University students return to Hamden after winter break, residents remain concerned about the community spread of COVID-19.
Hamden resident Danny Ford, 54, said he is worried about the potential “500 person parties,” referring to a Halloween party attended by Quinnipiac students at Anthony’s Ocean View last semester.
“I’m not too happy,” Ford said, “but I’m also not too mad that students are back.”
Hamden is a town of nearly 60,000 residents and Quinnipiac adds about 10,000 more people within the limits.
Parties may not be the only concern, however, as many students violated the isolation period prior to the Feb. 1 beginning of in-person classes.
Henry Weigand is a finance major at Quinnipiac. He said, “I think the containment period was a joke. I don’t think that people actually cared about who goes off-campus or who comes on campus.
“I don’t want to blame that on anybody. I can imagine that it’s difficult for people to organize all that, but I still think the school could’ve done a better job enforcing the rules,” Weigand, who is from Hamburg, Germany, added.
During this period students were tested, and if negative allowed to return to their dorm or house to remain in containment for 10 days.
Many students broke the containment period by leaving campus to shop, go to restaurants and even go home out of state.
The university reported Thursday, Feb. 11 that 38 positive cases remain on campus and 93 have been detected since Jan. 21. No dorms, however, are in lockdown.
Kristen Casamento, senior assistant athletic director of academic support, said, “The result of having the containment period was because of the incident last year during Halloween — I just don’t think the school was strict enough.”
Hamden resident Jeremy Crotty said he does not mind their return this semester.
“I don’t worry about getting COVID that much anyways,” Crotty said. “They should have fun and enjoy their college lives. I believe they’re responsible enough to do that without the numbers going up too crazy.”
Quinnipiac has used guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and the state of Connecticut to establish and monitor its COVID procedures and testing process.
Dr. David Hill, senior medical advisor on the QU COVID-19 task force, described “new or changed” protocols QU is adopting as a change from the way the school handled the virus and its effects in the previous fall semester.
“Most policies and protocols remain in place from the fall, including limits on gatherings, discipline policies related to the QU Pact, and commitments to keep our neighbors and community healthy,” said Hill in an email sent Jan.12.
The QU Pact requests students restrict travel out of state and not to have non-student visitors, among other things. All students, faculty and staff were required to sign the non-binding agreement.