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Higher Ed Dive
Sex, masks and parties: Can colleges actually change student behavior?
Reopening plans rely heavily on expectations that students will follow
rules that limit the scope of campus life. But their schools play a
role in whether they will listen.
By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf and Hallie Busta
August 7, 2020
Purdue University President Mitch Daniels has been on the forefront of
the campaign to reopen college campuses this fall. He appeared on a
Senate committee panel in June extolling the benefits of students
returning to campus and outlining the extensive efforts his university
would undertake to prevent the spread of the coronavirus there.
One part of Purdue's strategy is having students agree to follow the
Protect Purdue Pledge, in which they promise to diligently wash their
hands, don a face covering and practice social distancing.
But a different story was playing out down the street from campus.
As local media reports detailed in May, when Purdue hotspot Harry's
Chocolate Shop reopened its business, students lined up in the pre-dawn
hours to get a seat, bunched together nearer than the advised six feet
and often maskless. This trend prompted unease among local health
officials.
Similar tales have cropped up across the U.S. as many states battle a
rise in confirmed coronavirus cases. Outbreaks have been tied to
fraternity homes and bars, and the issue of mask-wearing has become
deeply politicized.
So far, nearly a quarter of colleges plan to be mostly or fully
in-person this fall and 16% are adopting a hybrid model, according to
data from the College Crisis Initiative at Davidson College. A quarter
of the some 3,000 institutions in the sample are still deciding. Only
around 5% said they were going fully online, and even then they likely
will offer some students housing on campus.
Behavioral experts say it's doubtful every student will abide by safety
measures designed to prevent the spread of the virus to the extent
colleges demand. While relatively few students are likely to
deliberately flout the rules, others may make mistakes that void them
unintentionally. And early indications of student behavior bode poorly
for the coming year. That could undermine the linchpins of colleges'
safety plans this fall.
Students share some blame when they don't follow the rules. But it's
not all their fault. Campus leaders should acknowledge that college
students' brains are still evolving in a way that makes them prone to
taking risks that could endanger them — especially considering they've
likely been pent up for months. Officials should also prepare to
educate students and offer rationale for what they're asking them to
do, all in an effort to normalize some of the required behavior changes.
"If you are asking people to change the way they socialize and hook up,
then being able to explain why you need to do it differently I think is
important," said Dominic Packer, a psychology professor at Lehigh
University. "If people understand the reasons, then they can take that
into account and it doesn't just feel like, 'Oh we're being told what
to do because they don't want us to have any fun anymore.'"
New rules for socializing
The pull of social connection is particularly strong among students in
the traditional college age range, said Anna Song, a health psychology
professor at the University of California, Merced, who studies
risk-taking and adolescent behavior.
A global health crisis hasn't curtailed their fun. The examples are
numerous: A rash of cases in June was linked to a bar frequented by
Louisiana State University students. A pub popular among students at
Michigan State University was found to be the hotspot for at least 170
cases, contributing to the governor's decision to stop indoor service
among establishments that primarily serve alcohol, according to The
Associated Press.
Colleges are setting campus policies that may prove difficult to
enforce in part because students aren't likely to follow them, whether
on purpose or through oversight. Harvard, Virginia Commonwealth and
Seattle universities, as well as the University of California, Davis,
are among the schools to ban visitors in on-campus housing, as one
example.
"There are a lot of things working against helping young people socially distance and be vigilant against COVID-19," Song said.
Of the seven, four-year nonprofit institutions Education Dive contacted
to discuss their rules and expectations for student behavior this fall,
only one provided comment by publication time: Purdue.
Mistakes and "oversights" will likely occur among students, and issues
with compliance will be addressed with "care, understanding and
information sharing," spokesperson Jim Bush wrote in an email. Purdue
plans to offer a mix of online and in-person classes this fall.
"We understand that these changes are significant in a person's
day-to-day activity, and it may take time for new norms to be fully
implemented," Bush said.
Colleges will try to give students some leeway, especially early in the
year, said Martha Compton, president of the Association for Student
Conduct Administration and dean of students at Concordia University
Texas. Students won't be removed from campus if they forget to wear a
mask to class or stop to talk with a friend, she said. Administrators
will try to educate, rather than be punitive.
But officials will find ways to come down on students who blatantly
disregard pandemic-related policies. Most conduct codes contain
provisions that allow them to punish students for breaking
miscellaneous campus rules or outside regulations and laws, Compton
said.
While some students will ignore mandates entirely and throw gigantic
parties, the misteps generally won't be massive or intentional, Song
predicts. It's more likely the virus would be spread by students not
thinking through their daily interactions. The brain doesn't stop
developing until around age 25, Song said. Because of this, young
adults generally have good intentions but may not think through their
actions completely.
Song gave a scenario: A student walking down the street spots a friend
they haven't seen for awhile. The two stop, hug and remove their masks
to talk.
"It's a situation where the impulse completely outweighs the intention," Song said.
Not to say larger incidents won't occur. Outbreaks of the coronavirus
have already been tied to Greek life parties at several institutions.
But the likely offenders will be one or two students who decide to host
a party in an off-campus apartment, said Gentry McCreary, CEO and
managing partner of Dyad Strategies, which consults with colleges about
student life.
That could make punishments more difficult, McCreary said. Colleges
will need to rely on partnerships with local police and health
departments to crack down on off-campus misbehavior, he said.
"College students are a sociable bunch, they're going to spend time
together, it's part of the college experience and it's going to
happen," McCreary said.
Let's talk about sex
There's socializing, and then there's sex. Calling on students to forgo
that kind of intimacy is "a really big ask," said Lisa Wade, a visiting
scholar at Tulane University and author of "American Hookup: The New
Culture of Sex on Campus."
Hookups are sexual encounters with no expectation of commitment. While
research shows most students don't hook up all that much, the
expectation is still there, particularly at residential colleges. So is
the opportunity.
"The moments on college campuses where hookup culture is at its
greatest strength are these massive parties where many, many students
are mashed together and drinking alcohol and having a lot of physical
contact of all kinds," Wade said.
But as college and government officials lay on rules to prevent the
virus's spread — such as banning guests in campus housing and limiting
how many people can gather — they're also narrowing the pool of people
who students can readily interact with, and the venues that kindle
hookups.
That doesn't mean students won't try, said Justin Garcia, executive
director of the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University, which studies
sexuality, relationships and well-being. He questioned whether students
will turn more to dating apps as an alternative for finding sexual
partners.
If college officials can be honest that students will seek out sex amid
the pandemic, Garcia said, they "can be a lot more effective at
providing students with tools to stay safe and to reduce risk for both
themselves and everyone else in the community." He added that the
health crisis gives colleges a chance to offer inclusive sex education
that covers disease transmission.
Students can take precautions such as getting tested for the
coronavirus and quarantining between sexual partners, as well as being
open with roommates if they're hooking up, Garcia said.
Colleges "need to actively start the conversation" with students "about
how to reimagine their sexual and romantic lives" in light of the
pandemic, Wade said, noting that some students may not know how to date
or have preconceived notions of how to have fun on campus. Schools also
haven't delved too deep into discussions of campus sexual culture,
focusing instead on helping ensure students have safe sex and reducing
sexual violence, she added.
One way colleges can guide students now is by setting up discussions
across campus between students who live in dorms and their resident
advisers, Wade said. Colleges could also give students more
opportunities to socialize in environments designed to prevent the
virus from spreading.
But telling students to abstain? "That's not realistic," Garcia said.
"We could tell them that, but that's not realistic for anything that we
know about the last century of behavioral science. Let's arm them with
realistic tools."
The mask mandate
Colleges bringing students back to campus are also banking on their
willingness to wear face coverings — and doing it right. But Syon
Bhanot, a behavioral and public economist who teaches at Swarthmore
College, doesn't think that's a sure bet.
"There's a great deal of uncertainty about how seriously students will take these procedures," Bhanot said.
Research has shown that masks are effective in reducing the virus's
spread. And behavioral science suggests some degree of mask-wearing can
be expected in public spaces like classrooms, where peoples' actions
can be observed and sanctions can be readily administered. But it's
"extremely uncertain" whether it will be the norm in more private
settings, Bhanot said. Think dorms and off-campus apartments.
If masks are to become ubiquitous for students, colleges have to set
that expectation, behavioral experts said. But in a country where
mask-wearing is still a relatively novel behavior, colleges must do
more than ask.
A key part of social norms is understanding how other people expect you
to behave. Colleges' messaging to students should reflect that, Bhanot
said: "Everyone's expecting you to wear a mask here on campus and you
are being judged negatively if you don't."
For the message to stick, students need to hear it from other students,
particularly those in leadership positions, said Catherine Sanderson, a
psychology professor at Amherst College and author of the book "Why We
Act: Turning Bystanders into Moral Rebels," which examines the
psychology of changing social norms.
"Getting some people in an environment to adopt a particular behavior
creates a ripple effect and leads other people to follow," Sanderson
said. "You don't change everybody, you just change the right people and
then other people will follow."
The intervention applies to more than just mask-wearing.
West Virginia University, which is starting the fall with a mix of
online and in-person classes, has tapped around 400 students and 200
faculty and staff to help turn their classmates and colleagues onto the
requirement. These "micro-influencers" hope to encourage people "who
have not yet decided how seriously they'll take our campus safety
guidelines" to wear a mask and follow other coronavirus-related rules,
Tony Dobies, a university spokesperson, wrote in an email.
The university sent each of them a school-themed mask and asked them to
post photos on social media of themselves wearing it along with a
reason why doing so is important. They even have a catchy name: Maskots.
That kind of approach can also help ensure students follow the rules when instructors and administrators aren't watching.
"It can't just be that (students) look around at each other and just
sort of use each other as a guide, because there's definitely going to
be students who don't wear masks," Bhanot said.
The guidance should also be to the point. "People respond well to
concise, clear categorical asks: Do this, don't do this. This is good
behavior, this is bad behavior," he said.
Another way to encourage mask-wearing is showing students how their
actions affect others, Sanderson said. That could include reminding
them that they are protecting a vulnerable worker, such as a favorite
dining hall employee who is older and has a sick spouse at home.
Nationally, masks have been divisive. President Donald Trump largely
eschewed them until late July. And while two-thirds of states require
people to wear masks in public, some governors have come out against
such mandates — a position that stands to impact colleges in their
states. Meanwhile, businesses across the country say enforcement is a
challenge.
Colleges may be welcoming students from areas with different norms
around mask-wearing. To depoliticize the topic, Bhanot advises
institutions to position themselves, rather than politicians, as the
authority for safety rules on their campuses.
"The more the college can say, ... 'Those debates can rage on, but this
is how we're doing it here and you have to adhere to that,' I think
probably is going to be more effective," he said.
As knowledge of the virus has evolved, so has public health officials'
approach to it. Guidance around mask-wearing has changed since the
start of the pandemic, when health experts said face coverings weren't
necessary. Time and research have revealed new warning signs that
someone may be infected. Social distancing, meanwhile, turned into a
habit for many as it became clear that people without symptoms can
easily spread the virus.
Colleges should inform the campus that their rules, too, may change and could get stricter, said Lehigh's Packer.
"Letting people know about that up front means they are not then surprised or don't start to lose trust in you," Packer said.
That's because the onus is on colleges to set expectations. And students headed to campuses are in for an atypical fall term.
Sanderson said the comparison shouldn't be to what the college
experience has historically been but rather to what students would
otherwise be missing out on.
"Is it better to be on campus with your friends, with new rules and restrictions," she asked, "or is it better not to be here?"
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