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NPR Ed
The Wild Card For An In-Person Fall: College Student Behavior
Elissa Nadworny
June 29, 2020
When asked if he could imagine a college party where everyone is
wearing masks, Jacques du Passage, a sophomore at Louisiana State
University, laughs.
"No. I don't think they would do that," he says. "I think [students] would just have the party and then face the repercussions."
That's exactly what Apramay Mishra, student body president at the
University of Kansas, is worried about when it comes to reopening
campus amid the pandemic. "Right now it's kind of slipped from most
people's minds," he says. Students "don't really think it's a big deal."
Around the U.S., coronavirus cases are rising among young people. The
spread of the virus has been connected to college-related events such
as fraternity parties, drinking at off-campus bars and athletic
practices. For colleges planning to bring thousands of students
together in the fall, student spread is a real worry. And the stakes
are high: If there are outbreaks, campuses may once again be forced to
shut down, scattering students and disrupting academics and college
finances all over again.
To keep that from happening, schools have created robust guidelines —
but those plans rely on a major wild card: students following the rules.
"That's the conversation everyone is having right now," says Anna Song,
who studies young adult decision-making at the University of
California, Merced. Many college students still have developing brains,
so it's not that they aren't informed or that they don't understand the
risks — it's that they're wired differently. "They are highly
sensitized to reward, especially in the context of peers," she
explains. Hanging out with friends is a pretty incredible reward, given
that many students have been isolated for months.
"Peer culture is ... not easy to change"
Changing campus culture and student behavior isn't just about rewards.
Song found that you can influence behavior if you find the right
messaging. She studies smoking habits, and she has found that students
who believe that their smoking will harm their friend's health are
significantly less likely to start smoking themselves. The challenge
for colleges is to figure out what messages will motivate students to
adhere to the guidelines. Song isn't convinced that the idea of keeping
faculty safe will be enough — she says administrators may have to focus
on family members or friends who are vulnerable.
Other experts are less optimistic that student behavior can change.
"Peer culture is really durable. It is not easy to change," says
Kristen Renn, an associate dean at Michigan State University. "We
haven't done it with alcohol. We haven't done it with sexual behavior.
We haven't done it with all kinds of things."
Renn is most worried about the moments outside the classroom: brushing
teeth, running into friends, grabbing dinner. And Song is worried about
those too.
"I vacillate back and forth, honestly. Day to day," she says. "I am
optimistic, but there are some real serious challenges. And we can't be
naive that those challenges aren't there. Are we asking them to do
something that is almost near impossible?"
The front lines
At the University of Miami, Pat Whitely, vice president of student
affairs, is responsible for figuring out how to reopen dorms, how to
orient new students and how to make sure everyone follows the rules. It
hasn't been easy.
"I've done a lot of crisis work in my career," she says. "Different
hurricanes and things. This has been the hardest work ever because it's
so much of the unknown."
Whitely has been telling student leaders how integral they are to the college's reopening plan.
"All of you are more crucial than you've ever been before," she told a
group of orientation leaders over Zoom this month. "We have to have
everybody cooperate, because if we have an outbreak, then that becomes
a problem for everybody."
The university plans to hire student ambassadors to help enforce some
of the new health policies, such as mask wearing and social distancing.
It's also one of many schools that have drawn up contracts for students
coming back to campus, requiring them to follow the new pandemic
guidelines. One such agreement, at the University of Pennsylvania, asks
students to "refrain from organizing, hosting, or attending events,
parties, or other social gatherings off-campus."
Of course, student agreements aren't new. Nearly every campus in
America has a student handbook or code of conduct, explains Martha
Compton, president of the Association for Student Conduct
Administration. And for the most part, they work. "The vast majority of
students do abide by guidelines, with an even higher level when they're
related to classroom conduct," Compton says. But it's imperative that
colleges educate students on the rules, especially if they've changed.
She also advises that colleges enforce the rules with compassion and
leniency — for example, having masks available when someone forgets.
At the University of Virginia, senior Ellen Yates has been working with
a handful of students to figure out what messaging and enforcement
should look like on her campus.
"We are concerned about creating a kind of policing culture on grounds
where students feel like they're being watched or monitored," she says.
"We want to instead work for accountability between students."
Keeping campuses safe will require buy-in from all students, because
it's not just an individual decision, like alcohol consumption.
COVID-19 is a contagious disease, so peer behavior impacts the entire
community. Yates is convinced that the key is to make mask wearing and
social distancing the norm. Students will follow the example of their
fellow students, she says, particularly students whom they admire and
look up to. She thinks of it as a positive peer pressure strategy.
But even she has doubts.
"All of our routines are built around social interaction," says Yates.
"It's just a totally new set of social conditions that certainly nobody
in my age has ever been subjected to."
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