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Politico
Colleges crack down on student behavior as virus threatens more closures
Institutions are quickly finding out the limitations of a we’re-all-in-this-together mindset.
By Nick Niedzwiadek and Andrew Atterbury
08/30/2020
The biggest threat to universities' carefully drawn reopening plans? Their students.
School leaders are dishing out suspensions, kicking students out of
dorms and sanctioning Greek organizations over large gatherings during
a budding semester that already has seen colleges close amid thousands
of confirmed Covid-19 cases and dozens of deaths. In some cases
students face the ultimate penalty of expulsion for disobeying mask
rules while their schools set up tip lines and scour social media for
any hint of parties or social distancing violations, both on and off
campus.
Some colleges had students sign liability waivers as a condition of
returning to campus, putting the full weight of reckless behavior on
young adults. Administrators say if students don’t take greater
responsibility they will be the reason campuses shut down, again.
“I am deeply concerned with this sheer defiance to comply with
the university’s guidelines and expectations set forth and communicated
to you before the fall semester,” Florida State University President
John Thrasher wrote Tuesday in a message to campus.
The stakes are high. In addition to the public health risk, the virus’
arrival this spring already has cost universities millions in refunds
and lost revenue, and another round of campus shutdowns would send
shock waves through already reeling communities. In areas relatively
unscathed by coronavirus, there’s concern that an outbreak on campus
would quickly spill over into the general population, with at least one
New York school district citing its proximity to a nearby state college
as a reason why it decided to start the year online.
Colleges acknowledge that the vast majority of students and campus
employees will follow the book of Covid-era rules put in place to try
and hold class during a pandemic, but they're affording little leniency
to those who don't.
In Tallahassee, FSU campus police arrested and charged seven students
with underage drinking. They were caught hosting an “open house party”
on Sunday — the day before classes started. Thrasher used the party as
an example to the student body, warning that the hosts will face
discipline from the university, which has reported at least 68 Covid-19
cases among 6,630 students and staff tested since Aug. 2.
“We will not tolerate any behavior that puts the health and safety of
the campus or the Tallahassee community at risk,” Thrasher wrote.
Many schools revised their student conduct policies to penalize hosting
parties or compel mask wearing, yet hoped that they could rally the
community to ensure compliance without necessitating punishment. But
colleges are quickly finding out the limitations of a
we’re-all-in-this-together mindset. Several already have been forced to
shut down and shuffle thousands of students back off campus — and
others are going to extraordinary lengths to prevent the same fate.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday that colleges will be ordered
to go remote if they report 100 cases, or if 5 percent of the campus
community tests positive within a two-week period, whichever is lower.
“We should anticipate clusters,” Cuomo said. “We expect it. We want to be prepared for it.”
More than 500 University of Alabama students have tested positive thus
far, a surge in cases that President Stuart Bell said was
“unacceptable” and “threatens our ability to complete the rest of the
semester on campus.”
Other leaders also have tried to level with students.
“Do you want to be the person responsible for sending everyone home?”
Penn State University President Eric Barron asked in a recent campus
message. The university recently suspended a fraternity for hosting a
party with about 70 people and required fraternity members to undergo
testing.
Penn State students also circulated a petition that’s gathered
thousands of signatures to send the freshman class home for breaking
social distancing rules, a sign of the tensions — directed both at
students and, often, administrators — that are building on many
campuses.
Fraternity parties “put us at risk of having to close the campus and
convert to fully online class delivery,” Florida Gulf Coast President
Mike Martin told students after suspending two Greek organizations over
raging parties.
It would be unrealistic for campuses to see zero Covid-19 cases, but
colleges can avoid broad outbreaks by keying in on infections early,
said University of Miami President Julio Frenk.
UM, which reported 96 Covid-19 cases after classes began Aug. 17, is
isolating students on two entire floors at one campus residence hall in
light of a Covid-19 infection, Frenk said.
Already this semester, the university has suspended students and
removed them from their dorms for not following health rules, such as
social distancing, said Frenk, former dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan
School of Public Health from 2009 to 2015 and Mexico’s minister of
health from 2000 to 2006.
“Those whose behavior indicates they are not honoring their commitment
to the community have begun meeting with the consequences of their poor
choices,” Frenk said in a video message to the university.
Some colleges are imposing testing or quarantine requirements for
students before they can step onto campus. Others are placing large
bets on relatively unproven technology, like contact tracing apps, but
virtually every school that is not going fully remote this fall is
banking on students to follow the rules, particularly off school
grounds.
“I think the big issue is off-campus activity,” University of
Arizona President Robert Robbins said last week on “Face the Nation.”
“I think we all know that we can control things in the classroom and on
campus and in the student union and not having large gatherings of
people on campus in official venues.”
However some argue that too much weight is being placed on the
decision-making abilities of young people to paper over the failures of
others to control the spread of Covid-19.
“Colleges, universities and our country at large are gearing up for a
fall of blaming young people for the mistakes of the ‘adults’ in
charge,” Syracuse University professor George Theoharis wrote in an
op-ed in the local newspaper. “[I]f we didn’t want it to happen, we
would not have opened.”
Ohio State University handed out more than 225 suspensions before
classes began for various social distancing infractions. Purdue
University recently suspended 36 people in connection to an off-campus
party, and Syracuse University suspended nearly two dozen students
linked to a massive — largely maskless — nighttime gathering of
freshmen on its quad. Syracuse administrators ripped into students for
being “incredibly reckless” and implored them to “[t]hink of someone
other than yourself.”
“It may seem like we’re being hard on our students, but they wanted
this, and now the ball is in their court," said Linda LeMura, president
of Le Moyne College, which is just a few miles away from Syracuse
University. "Our students said they wanted to be back, and so we have
to hold the line on certain behaviors.”
LeMura said her campus has not had similar problems, so far. The
college asked coaches whose seasons have been canceled to conduct
student outreach and remind them about the rules.
“Coaches have a really nice way with students, garner their respect and students respond very well to them,” she said.
Others are trying to prevent similar situations with tactics that in
typical times would seem unfathomable. Representatives for Arizona
State University filed a lawsuit against Facebook to pressure the tech
giant to take down an Instagram account — which it subsequently did —
encouraging parties and spreading misinformation. Northeastern
University put 115 students on notice after they responded to a social
media poll that they’d be willing to go to parties and ordered them to
write an affirmation to abide by the student conduct policy or risk
having their admissions rescinded.
Kate Kuznetsova, Northeastern’s student body president, said some
students were actually heartened by the university's aggressive
response.
"A lot of seniors and upperclassmen do not want to jeopardize their
semester and education just because of a party," she said. "Students
think that there is a lot of pressure on them, and that’s true, but who
doesn’t have pressure on them at this time? Everyone has their part to
play."
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