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A masked Ball State University student works on her laptop. Michael Conroy/AP Photo
Campus life sans Covid: A few colleges write the playbook for pandemic success
Schools finding success are deploying methods health experts have
recommended for months for the whole country to keep the virus under
control.
By Juan Perez Jr.
09/28/2020
At Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, just one coronavirus case has
emerged from more than 11,500 campus tests administered since August.
The flagship University of Connecticut system reports 64 cases among
the 5,000-student residential population on its Storrs campus. Clark
University in central Massachusetts just spotted its first potential
case in more than a month, while a few pricey private colleges in New
York also report few infections since the start of the semester.
Several universities have resumed in-person classes and invited
students back to live on or near campus this semester while logging few
infections, even as other institutions struggle to halt outbreaks or
rely on virtual education. These early case studies hint at a potential
path to recovery for a bruised higher education industry, as the virus
continues to spread across the country and the death toll rises.
Each campus is different. Covid-19 is still a newly discovered
pathogen. But a combination of low infection rates in communities that
surround schools and multimillion-dollar pandemic management strategies
appear to slash the opportunities for the disease to enter campus and
fester among students and staff.
“It shows us that we may not need to have a vaccine to do things like
have students in classes. But we have to be careful about it, and you
have to have the epidemiological situation that can facilitate that,”
said Tara Kirk Sell, a Johns Hopkins infectious disease expert.
Colleges finding early success are deploying methods health experts
have long recommended the whole country use to keep the virus under
control. But a patchwork of state approaches, ongoing testing shortages
— or outright rejection of recommendations about testing, masks and
social distancing — have combined to keep the virus spreading.
Certain state colleges and smaller schools might have a distinct
advantage, especially those based in more geographically isolated areas
that cater to students from places where the virus is less severe.
Still, initial victories include rigid protocols for frequent testing,
contact tracing, social distancing and mask-wearing.
“It may be this constellation of imperfect measures and the surrounding
environmental situation that together makes it work for them,” Kirk
Sell said.
Some schools also have another edge over others struggling to prevent
outbreaks: a partner capable of processing thousands of weekly campus
coronavirus tests.
More than 100 Northeastern colleges and universities employ the Broad
Institute — a Cambridge, Mass.,-based biomedical laboratory at Harvard
and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — to scan student and
staff test samples for the disease.
For $25 per test, the institute collects samples from colleges and
universities and runs them within an average of 24 hours through a
genomics lab Broad scientists converted into a coronavirus testing
facility. It's processed more than 2.1 million tests since March.
University of Connecticut and University of Massachusetts campuses use
Broad’s system, the institute said, along with a group of Ivy League
and other private schools.
In central Massachusetts, 1,800 Clark University students must enter a
Covid-19 testing facility inside the campus athletic center every three
days, flash their identification and probe their own nostrils with a
sterile swab as part of a disease suppression plan now projected to
cost $11 million this year. Students who don’t comply risk forfeited
tuition and removal from campus.
“We absolutely could not pull this off without rigorous testing,” Clark
University President David Fithian said. “Critics can find plenty of
evidence that [reopening] was not the right decision, and I would say
that’s probably true for certain campuses. I think what our case shows
is that you can actually manage it responsibly.”
Doing so comes with more than a financial cost. The university is
foregoing competitive athletics for now. There are no rehearsals for
the wind ensemble. And while university officials have yet to decide on
spring semester plans, Fithian said he doubts full sports seasons and
large indoor gatherings will resume if classes continue.
Schools are finding some success with customized plans based on the
nuances of their campus population, said Elizabeth Drexler-Hines,
president of the New England College Health Association. New England’s
schools can also look to state and local leaders who work closely with
public health officials, she said. But schools don’t need to reinvent
the fundamental procedures of old-school virus-busting: containment and
surveillance.
“We know these things,” Drexler-Hines said. “If there are some pieces
of these models that are successful, I really hope those will be looked
at to expand if those would work for state governments.”
With all the planning, coordination and expense, university officials
hope to avoid uncontrolled outbreaks that halt in-person classes, shut
down campus or interrupt major activities like basketball season.
Coronavirus infections that collide with potential influenza outbreaks,
especially on large campuses near urban areas, could tar a school’s
image and decrease enrollment.
“It could go wrong,” said Carol Quillen, president of Davidson
College, a small liberal arts school that hosts the College Crisis
Initiative’s review of campus coronavirus plans and requires at least
once-weekly testing of the nearly 1,800 students living on or near
campus.
“I don't take anything for granted,” she said of a virus management
plan expected to cost the North Carolina college nearly $10 million
this year. “We think we have a system that will let us contain
outbreaks, but we are really humble about it and ready to make changes
if we need to.”
Colleges in other parts of the country are finding much less success in
trying to fend off the virus. An early report from researchers at
Davidson and other schools concludes campuses that reopened for
in-person classes were associated with a daily increase of more than
3,000 coronavirus cases across the country. Those findings could be
critical for administrators who are planning to reopen campuses,
researchers said.
“I do see us gathering data that’s useful in helping other kinds of
communities plan on returning to a more normal life,” Quillen said.
“Secondly, I think we’re learning how to build community in new ways
that I think will translate into how we do that post-pandemic and how
we can sustain some semblance of normal life, even if we can’t come
together as we used to.”
At UConn, President Thomas Katsouleas praised students in an open
letter to campus this week. The university’s testing and contact
tracing plans are working, he said, while the virus has only seen
“minimal” spread to the surrounding community. Large parties have
sparked miniature crises at other universities, he wrote, but not at
UConn.
A smattering of cases have emerged in UConn residence halls, forcing
some dorm residents into minimum two-week quarantines that include more
testing and halted in-person classes. A small outbreak at an off-campus
apartment complex prompted similar protocols, though campus officials
told students that aggressive testing there helped cut the virus’
spread in half.
“While far from being in the clear in terms of remaining open through
the Thanksgiving break, we can all be proud of what the UConn community
has accomplished so far,” Katsouleas said. “We can get together in
person safely: All it takes is a mask and 6 feet.”
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