Understanding Who Didn't Study for Pandemics
Previous Concerns
In a survey from 2007 84% of schools seemed to be heavily reliant on government guidance for pandemics. Many schools seemed to have plans, but their plans lacked any detail. Seven years later, schools are still unprepared, an outbreak of meningococcal in 2015 at UCSB lead to one student having both of their feet amputated. 60% of infected were involved with greek life and all infections were traced to Halloween partying.
Comparing College Plans
US College Examples
University of Washington had at least 136 cases spread from Greek Row. At least 88,000 cases have occurred at college a at least 6,600 cases across the U.S have been spread from colleges. At least 14 students have died. Many colleges aren't keeping track.
Universities have stated that they are simply relying on having great students and will help spread information about COVID-19.
Some schools are banning parties, threatening suspension, and banning guests.
Some colleges have offered discounted tuition. If having just half the students in a dorm building is profitable, colleges will push for it. Many smaller colleges will most likely face mergers or closures.
11 students were suspended after found all being gathered together in the same room in campus housing. They were sent home with their housing cancelled and parents informed.
Ohio State University suspended 200 students before the semester even started. They suspended both hosts and attendees of off-campus parties that had more than 10 people.
One article suggests the main determining factor of colleges being open is money and how highly administration values the student's lives over money.
University of California Examples
UCSB has very little preparation for the 3% of classes that they plan to have open for fall quarter.
COVID-19 tests are currently being shipped to UCLA and SF, which makes results not come back for 2 weeks. The goal is to have 600 tests available every other week by Oct 1st available to students with UC ship. This will only be accessible to students, but should be for the entire community.
The environmental health and safety team isn’t being involved in any decisions, administration tends to just copy and paste county rules guidelines for a town that's more equivalent to a cruise ship in potential spreading. For other UC’s this team plays a critical role, yet there are no plans to even fill the position here. This is why there’s no plan for us to be returning to class yet.
The county decided that students could not live on campus. It was not the administration. This is due to the rising number of COVID-19 Isla Vista cases over the summer.
Administration was planning to have 1 person dorms and 1 to 2 person apartments.
UCSB is saying they're basically economically screwed if they don't open up in the winter.
Current Punishment
Currently, those who are anonymously reported simply get a notice on the door and an investigation will begin into that household's partying. It is very difficult for the university to enforce off-campus activity. UCSB needs to update its code of conduct in order to enforce more social distancing. Unfortunately, they are currently blaming other 'entities' for not being able to update them. Additionally, there are little to no disciplinary actions for faculty and staff who are not abiding the guidelines to staying safe.
Looking Towards the Future
The next few years are going to be difficult for the university financially. There’s going to be mass layoffs at UCSB due to revenue losses. The UCPD however is protected from these layoffs.
Some groups are already feeling these effects. RA’s only had a week's notice before being laid off and may have their year-long housing contract removed within a month of its start. Some of the RA's were international students and had VISAs. Some student workers have had their hours reduced to zero instead of being laid off. This creates a situation for them where they're stuck in a job where they aren't making money, however, if they quit they cannot receive unemployment checks. There is no set A.S budget yet for organizations, expect layoffs. Possibly the worst news is that there is no plan set in stone for quarantining students who are in IV, who contract the coronavirus, even if they live in 15 person houses.
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