In an effort to protect students living on campus from COVID-19, the University has taken proactive steps to provide separate living spaces for undergraduates who have to remain in residential halls so that they’re less likely to come into contact with coronavirus.
The readiness plan also includes freeing up living areas that may be used for quarantine and isolation areas so that students who need that level of care can receive it.
“What we’re trying to achieve with the students who remain on campus is further social distancing,” says Jane Gatewood, vice provost for global engagement and cochair of CURT (Coronavirus University Response Team). “The first phase was putting all students in single rooms, to further de-densify them. Phase two was securing quarantine and isolation areas so we are prepared if we find the disease has spread to the residential population.”
There are 815 undergraduates living on the River Campus, from an original total of 4,277 who were living there at the start of the spring semester. Of the 342 who started the semester living on the Eastman School of Music campus, only 25 remain and all are in single rooms.
On March 23, 32 students moved from Wilder Tower to nearby Anderson Tower. More were relocated over the weekend as 32 were moved from doubles to singles (almost all of them in the same residence hall), and 67 students in Hill Court were relocated to apartments in de Kiewiet and Valentine towers. Each student is in a single room within an apartment.
“We regret the disruption, but it is the only way we can be prepared to provide support if there is a large number of ill students who have COVID-19,” says Ralph Manchester, director of the University Health Service.