A ‘Palpable Sense of Fear’ as Covid Cases Soar at a College in Rural Georgia

Illustration by The Chronicle

Classes at Georgia College and State University keep getting smaller.

The picturesque campus in tiny Milledgeville (population 18,704), is overrun with the spread of coronavirus. Day after day, fewer students show up in person.

Those absent students re-emerge virtually — attending class online from quarantine, either because they tested positive for Covid-19, or came into contact with someone who did.

“It’s an absolutely surreal mixture of joy and terror,” said Meridith Styer, an assistant professor of rhetoric at the college. “The students are exuberant and happy to be there, and so socially starved, like all of us. But there’s also a real palpable sense of fear.”

Faculty told The Chronicle that they teach courses where some 20 or 30 percent of their students are now in quarantine. Georgia College, which enrolls about 6,800 students, has recorded more than 470 student cases of Covid-19. About 7 percent of students at the public liberal-arts college have tested positive for the virus.

And that happened after only two weeks of classes.

The worsening situation poses a test for the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents, which has aggressively pushed its 26 public colleges and universities to reopen in person. The state system did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Chronicle.

Steve M. Dorman, the college’s president, has blamed students’ off-campus parties and gatherings for fueling the surge in cases. He vowed this week that any students caught partying unsafely would be disciplined, and possibly even suspended, by the institution.

“This activity is totally unacceptable and needs to stop immediately,” the president said in his statement. Dorman declined an interview request sent through a spokesperson, and did not respond to written questions submitted by The Chronicle.

While student behavior has contributed to viral spread, it is not the sole factor.

Georgia College did not test students upon arrival, and it has not adopted contact-tracing measures. Faculty said most classes are still being held in person, with some lecture classes having as many as 70 or 80 students.

When Fraternity and Sorority Life held its “rush” recruiting drive for new members, at least some activities were in person.

Molly Hooks is one of the Georgia College students in quarantine, after her roommate tested positive for the virus. Hooks said the campus environment is “unsafe,” and it is time for the college to switch to fully online courses.

“But it’s too late — that’s the frustrating part,” Hooks said. “There’s 500 people with Covid now.”

Although the college’s president rails against partyers, she said her roommate went only to class and to the grocery store — yet still contracted Covid. And Hooks said the college isn’t responding aggressively to reports of parties anyhow.

When she recently reported a gathering of about 100 people across the street from her off-campus apartment, Hooks said that the campus police just drove by the party several times without breaking it up. Later, after a fight broke out, the party was finally shut down, she said.

The 20-year-old environmental-science major said she enjoys learning in person, but she also would have appreciated the option to take more of her coursework remotely. Georgia College is offering only limited courses online, which effectively forces most students to return to campus to continue their education.

Faculty, too, were obligated to return in person, unless they could demonstrate a qualifying medical condition.

Ruled by the Regents

Georgia’s emphasis on in-person instruction comes from the state Board of Regents, whose members are appointed by the governor to seven-year terms. Brian Kemp, who was elected in 2018, and his predecessor, Nathan Deal, are both Republicans.

Since March, the board has met remotely, and it continues to do so. Yet the regents insisted that Georgia’s colleges reopen in person.

In recent years, the state consolidated power — stripping university presidents of their long-held autonomy.

Since March, Georgia has taken the lead on key coronavirus decisions.

For example, the state initially refused to require face masks on campus, even though many of its colleges clearly wanted to make masks mandatory. After a public uproar and media scrutiny, the state relented and said masks would be required.

Going forward, if Covid cases continue to spread at Georgia College, it is likely that any decision to move classes online would have to happen at the state level.

In discussions with its employees, Georgia College said it would follow state policy on how to handle infected students. Generally speaking, they are sent home to their families.

“Georgia College does not maintain an infirmary for students who are quarantining with Covid on campus,” the president and provost wrote in a “FAQs” document on July 2. “Therefore, students who are identified as needing to self-quarantine or self-isolate will need to go home during this period of time. This process follows [state system] guidance on this issue.”

The college allows an exception for international students or others who have a “hardship” that prevents them from leaving.

Brandy Kennedy, a political-science professor at Georgia College, said that sending students home for quarantine is a “cold policy,” and one that could prove dangerous to their relatives.

“So we force them here, now they’re sick or exposed, and we’re sending them home to potentially expose their family members,” Kennedy said.

Georgia College is located in rural Baldwin County. The region has significant poor and black populations — two groups that have already suffered disproportionately from the pandemic.

More than four in 10 county residents are black. Nearly a quarter of residents are low-income.

And the region has very few intensive-care beds available in its hospitals, Kennedy said.

LeAnn Whitley, who graduated in May, said the surrounding community risks a “nightmare” scenario from the rise in campus cases. Baldwin County has seen 446 new Covid-19 cases in the past two weeks — almost directly mirroring the rise in cases at the college.

Whitley said she recently called the Georgia College alumni association to vent, and to promise them that “they’ll never see a dime out of me, if they don’t get this together.”

“When is Georgia College going to go to the Board of Regents and say, We have an uncontrollable situation here?” she asked.