Tacoma university students concerned about plan to resume in-person learning in spring
Some students at the University of Puget Sound are expressing concern over plans to resume in-person classes in the spring during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
In a resolution, the Associated Students of the University of Puget Sound Senate raised concerns about “the dangers of returning to in-person instruction this spring” and called for the university “to release students from their campus leases without consequence.”
The resolution was signed unanimously by the senate and was sent to university administration Thursday night. The resolution was passed against the backdrop of a week of record high cases in Pierce County in addition to 141 cases on Friday, when the local death toll from the pandemic topped 200.
Bailey Gamel, senior senator and current senate chair, said the student government is awaiting a response.
“People either don’t want to come back or those that do want to come back want it to be pretty limited,” Gamel said.
In a town hall with parents and students Thursday night, university president Isiaah Crawford said discounted tuition would be offered to students in the spring no matter what and said the university would adapt to changing conditions.
Crawford said “if our plans for the spring semester have to change,” the hope is to make that decision “before the end of the fall semester sometime around Dec. 18 or so.”
Gayle McIntosh, vice president for communications, said housing contracts are still in place that require students to spend a minimum of two years on campus but that there is a process to appeal.
“The appeals are going to be reviewed by staff in Residence Life,” McIntosh said. “It’s not a competitive process, but we just want to know what students’ needs are. There is not a cap on the number of appeals that we can accept.”
Starting Monday, Nov. 9 students can begin the appeal process by visiting the university website.
McIntosh said the requirement is not in place for financial purposes but is meant to better serve their students.
“It’s not that we are making money off student housing,” McIntosh said. “Students who live on campus, particularly for the first two years, tend to have a higher success rate.”
Another point in the resolution asked the university “to create a survey to assess student opinions, concerns, and questions regarding the current situation and Spring Semester.”
One student, Miranda Roland, already put together a survey independently. Roland works as an institutional research assistant and is a junior at the university.
Of the 419 people who took the survey, which included staff, parents, students, and people who live in proximity to the university, the majority did not want campus to open.
Roland knows the survey is not comprehensive and hopes the university will undertake a more official survey.
“I’m kind of surprised they haven’t asked institutional research to make an official survey to ask students about how they feel,” Roland said. “I think that should be one of the most important things.”
McIntosh said a survey hasn’t been sent out because students hadn’t been given all the information about the mitigation measures until the Thursday town hall. McIntosh said a survey was sent to the faculty.
Another concern raised by students would be if the university would have the testing capacity required with more students. There are currently approximately 300 students on campus and if in-person classes resume, the university has said they anticipate having “up to 1,300.”
The last mass testing on campus took place on Oct. 28 and saw significant delays compared to prior weeks.
“They’ve said that there’s going to be COVID testing twice a week,” Roland said. “The last COVID test that we had on campus, the line wrapped from the Wheelock Student Center all the way to the library. I mean it was huge, and then no one was social distancing in that line.
“How are we going to make sure that doesn’t happen?”
Roland is concerned the increase of numbers would make crowding worse and cause delays.
Kelly K. Brown, director of Counseling, Health, & Wellness Services, said in an Nov. 3 email to students the cause for delays was “the sheer volume of people that showed up for testing and our inability to honor appointment times.”
“We are delighted with this increase in student participation, however, we realize we need to address the increased wait times,” the email said. “My goal is for this process to run as smoothly as possible, and I have begun the work of addressing this in our ongoing efforts.”
Another point of concern came from a post on social media from the official UPS account which showed a clear plastic barrier in a dorm room. McIntosh says that was posted accidentally and is no longer part of the campus plan.
“That was being considered. I haven’t backtracked how that photo came to be taken,” McIntosh said. “It’s not really shown to be an effective mitigation strategy.”
For some students, the photo led to confusion followed by derision.
“People were like, ‘Is this a joke?’” Roland said. “How is this Plexiglas in the middle of a bedroom supposed to help?”
“It seemed like a really ineffective measure,” Gamel said. “In the 60s when they would have kids duck underneath a desk in case a nuclear bomb went off, it feels very much about as effective as a desk with a nuclear bomb.”
Gamel expressed additional worries about what a return to campus could turn into.
“When we bring people back and when people get sick, there is going to be a bunch of blame on students for something we were telling them was going to happen,” Gamel said. “That frustrates me and scares me. At the end of the day, I don’t want people I know to die. I want my community to be safe. I want my community to be successful, and I think the best way to do that is staying remote for everybody’s sake.”
