Photo by Victoria Durgin/The Quill
By Victoria Durgin, Editor in Chief
February marked students’ return to campus for the spring semester. It also saw a peak of 27 student cases and the re-designation of isolation housing to “adequate.”
Seniors and residence assistants (RAs) were allowed to move into residence halls between Feb. 6 and 7. Juniors followed suit the following weekend, Feb. 13 and 14. Sophomores and first-years were then scheduled for move-in on Feb. 16, 20 and 21.
By Feb. 26, the dashboard reported 27 active COVID-19 cases among students. On March 1 the active case count hit 34.
Additionally, the designation of isolation housing availability was set at “adequate,” one step lower than the “ample” status it was on since the beginning of the spring semester.
According to Susquehanna Communications and Media Specialist Amanda O’Rourke, isolation housing is adaptable in the short term.
“Our capacity for quarantine and isolation housing is flexible, and the university has strategies in place to add more spaces in the short term should COVID cases or close-contacts increase,” O’Rourke said.
As COVID-19 cases were confirmed on campus, an increasing number of students were sent to quarantine housing as part of Susquehanna’s contact tracing efforts to remove possibly infected students from campus to keep the spread low.
By the last week in February students were being sent to multiple hotels in the Selinsgrove area, including the Quality Inn and Holiday Inn.
Some students who were contact traced also chose to isolate at home rather than in university-designated space.
O’Rourke said the university will not state all possible locations for quarantine housing.
“The university has agreements at several off-campus locations and will not disclose those locations out of respect for our students’ privacy,” O’Rourke said.
According to the information about contract tracing provided on the Susquehanna website, students are kept in isolation for up to 10 days.
O’Rourke said students in isolation who are missing scheduled work shifts and pay could still be paid for the time they were scheduled to work.
“Students must notify their supervisor of the length of their isolation or quarantine and enter their regular schedule on their timesheets,” O’Rourke said.
Questions regarding pay and work can be directed to studentemployment@susqu.edu.
Additionally, students facing financial hardship can access relief through the Student Care Funds, established by private donations to the university. For more information on that fund students can contact VPSL@susqu.edu.
Susquehanna did not announce any changes to policy in light of the increase in cases, partly because of the low positivity rate.
“The positivity rate is the percentage of the total number of tests conducted that lead to a positive case being identified. Since we are repeatedly testing a very large number of students and staff, the vast majority of whom test negative, our positivity rate is very low compared to local and state rates,” Vice President for Student Life Susan Lantz said in an email to all students on Feb. 26.
In the Student Government Association (SGA) meeting minutes from March 1, Dean of Students and Campus Life Christie Kräcker said the university has no plans to shift to remote learning.
“The amount of work that SU has put in to get students to campus will not be pushed to the side- our goal is to keep the students on campus,” Kräcker said.
In the same email Lantz said that if students remained compliant and the positivity rate remained low, the university could start to loosen some restrictions over the next few weeks.
This email also announced that Susquehanna would not use fines as punishment for breaking COVID-19 regulations on campus as previously announced.
“To date, we have not assessed any such fines, and, as always, would have continued to offer a university service alternate option for anyone. However, at the SGA’s request, we have agreed not to use fines for COVID noncompliance; instead, we will move forward with other sanctions stated in the Student Handbook,” Lantz said in the email.
Looking forward the university aims to keep students on campus as much as possible. All off-campus travel not related to “necessities” such as grocery shopping and eating at restaurants should be registered with the university.
According to O’Rourke this travel needs to be registered at least 48 hours in advance and the university will approve or reject it based on the nature of the travel.
Students found to be travelling without advance approval may face disciplinary action.
This could include being sent home for remote learning on a temporary or semester-long basis, according to O’Rourke.
