While plenty of colleges have decided to hold in-person classes, we're already beginning to see what the reality of putting college kids back on campus in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic looks like. For the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the first week of school already proved disastrous. A massive COVID-19 outbreak has forced the college to transition to online classes only.
As many kids are heading back to college this week, what happened at Chapel Hill could be a stark warning. After just one week of classes, 177 students were in isolation after testing positive for the virus, and 349 were in quarantine. Five teachers have also tested positive.
Those numbers are pretty staggering, but they aren't all that shocking, especially given some of the images that have come out of the first week of school. Pictures showed students partying in close proximity to one another, as if there is no pandemic whatsoever. But even aside from the inevitable socializing that is bound to take place, in-person classes, dormitory living, and just about everything that goes hand-in-hand with the college lifestyle looks like a recipe for a pretty unsafe situation.
UNC Chapel Hill welcomed 30,000 students back to campus on August 10. While everyone was hoping for the best, the school year did not go off without a hitch. Just one week into the fall semester, a massive COVID-19 outbreak took hold. Now the university has changed course, transitioning to online-only classes.
Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Robert A. Blouin addressed the change in a letter to the community. "We have not taken this decision lightly," it read.
The decision was reportedly made after consultation with local and state health experts, as well as infectious-disease experts at the university.
The shift to remote learning seems utterly necessary. The virus spread quickly, and as the week went on, more and more clusters of infections were being seen. "As much as we believe we have worked diligently to help create a healthy and safe campus living and learning environment, we believe the current data presents an untenable situation," Guskiewicz and Blouin said.
Before starting classes, UNC issued a strict mask mandate for most university spaces, indoors and out. Students were also asked to practice social distancing. Still, asking young adults not to socialize is a tall order. First off, many young people don’t feel as vulnerable to the virus and therefore have been taking more risks when it comes to socializing. But images captured just before the start of classes showed UNC students at a sorority rush party drinking and carrying on in close proximity like they would any other year.
Some students were outspoken about what was going on, noticing how dangerous the activity already appeared, just in the first few days back on campus. Lindsay Ayling is a UNC PhD candidate who helped organize a "die-in" protest on campus last week, calling for the university to take action. "I don't think there's any questioning that if the University opens up people will die," she said. "Once we realize there's been an outbreak of coronavirus, it will be too late."
It should be noted that there were precautions in place. Students were also given an online learning option called "Carolina Away." The online option was popular, too, which meant residence halls were at less than 60% capacity. Still, that didn't stop the virus from spreading. In the first week of school, the campus health clinic saw the test positivity rate rise to 13.6% from 2.8%.
UNC Chapel Hill is definitely not alone in the chaos. An Oklahoma State University sorority house is under quarantine after 23 members tested positive for COVID-19, according to the university. At Colorado College, 155 students are also in quarantine after coming in contact with a student who tested positive. Images and videos from plenty of other college campuses have emerged, too, leaving people wondering if college kids can be trusted to truly practice social distancing while on campus.
Dr. Megan Ranney, an emergency physician and associate professor of emergency medicine at Brown University, told CNN that it should have been anticipated that kids in this age group were bound to make some reckless choices. "It is just not paying attention to human psychology if you think you're going to be able to put those kids back together and not have them go and party," she said. "Any of us who were young adults know what it's like to be in your late teens and early 20s. It's up to those colleges to make it easy for those kids to do the right thing, to do regular testing, have mask mandates, have masks easily available, and if needed, to shut down those campuses."
All summer, we saw rates of COVID-19 soaring among people in the exact age range of college kids. The fact is, most 18- to 35-year-olds have mild symptoms. And while that doesn't mean that they can't spread the virus to more vulnerable people and that their actions won't have serious consequences, it can be tough to convince college students to play it safe when they assume they will be just fine no matter what.
The first weeks back on college campuses are typically an exciting time when 18-year-olds are away from their families for the first time and are thrilled about their newfound freedom. Others are getting back to seeing their college friends after a summer away.
Certainly, there are students who are going to be more vigilant about social distancing, but sending college kids back to in-person classes before the pandemic is on the downslide is undoubtedly going to result in more COVID-19 cases. It's hard to believe that we won't see more massive outbreaks on school campuses across the US in the coming weeks.
