Colleges should urge students to be tested for Covid-19 before they leave for Thanksgiving, be ready to quarantine and isolate students over the holiday break, and make sure that no one travels home while sick, the American College Health Association recommended in guidance issued on Thursday.
Campuses that plan to resume in-person classes after Thanksgiving should strongly discourage students from traveling and instead promote the idea of celebrating virtually with their families, the association said. In addition, “institutions should plan to provide on-campus meals and encourage staying in place for ‘Friendsgiving.’”
The recommendations come as Covid-19 cases are spreading rapidly across the country, according to the latest analysis by The New York Times. As of Thursday morning, more than nine million people across all states, Washington, D.C., and four U.S. territories have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began.
National health experts have warned colleges that sending students home in the midst of a pandemic could have disastrous public-health consequences. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also warned that traveling increases the risk of spreading or contracting Covid-19. At the same time, many colleges have already announced that they’ll end in-person classes right before Thanksgiving, and students have already made travel plans.
The association’s guidance is intended to minimize the chances that asymptomatic students spread the virus to their families and communities. It also provides tips on going home for holidays as safely as possible. “Students should be reminded that the test only reflects one point in time, there can be false negative results, and, in some cases, the virus may be contracted during travel,” the guidance says.
The guidelines also recommend that:
- Anyone feeling ill, with a Covid-19 diagnosis in the past 10 days, or exposed to someone with the virus should self-isolate and delay travel.
- Colleges should remind students about the need to be extra-vigilant in the weeks before leaving campus.
- Thanksgiving meals served on campus should allow for physical distance in well-ventilated or outdoor spaces with access to masks and hand sanitizer.
The association acknowledged that not all colleges have the resources to follow all of the recommendations.
An analysis by NPR found that more than two-thirds of colleges holding in-person classes either had no clear testing plan or were testing only students who are at risk. The analysis was based on data compiled from more than 1,400 colleges by the College Crisis Initiative at Davidson College.
Madeline Buitendorp is a junior at Davidson who serves as director of communications for the College Crisis Initiative. The campus plans she has studied acknowledge colleges’ worries about losing control of students when they leave for the holiday.
“You’ll be sending them out of this little safety bubble that you’ve built,” she said. Without testing students on their way out, the colleges “could be sending a bunch of asymptomatic spreaders.”
One Approach: Test Everyone
Some colleges, including Davidson, will consider allowing students to remain on campus if they have elderly or immunocompromised relatives at home, or if their homes aren’t conducive to remote study, Buitendorp said.
The State University of New York system recently announced one of the nation’s most sweeping plans for exit testing. On Tuesday, Jim Malatras, the system’s chancellor, announced that all students using on-campus facilities would have to test negative for Covid-19 within the 10 days before they planned to leave campus, around November 24. (Thanksgiving is the 26th.) The system’s 64 colleges and universities may need to test as many as 140,000 students during that time. Malatras gave the colleges until November 5 to submit their testing schedules, which he said should test students as close as possible to their planned departure dates.
Most SUNY campuses, under previously announced plans, will transition to fully remote instruction after Thanksgiving. Dorms will be closed, except to students with extenuating circumstances.
“With Covid-19 cases reaching record highs nationwide, this testing requirement will help prevent community spread as students return to their hometowns,” Malatras said in a statement posted on the system’s website. He called the plan “a smart, sensible policy that protects students’ families and hometown communities, and drastically reduces the chances of Covid-19 community spread.”
SUNY’s testing requirement applies to anyone who works or takes at least one class on campus, as well as those who use campus facilities such as gyms, libraries, or dining halls. Antibody tests, which can tell whether a person has had a past infection, don’t count toward the requirement. Colleges should consider letting students leave campus as soon as they get a negative test, the chancellor said. If they need to stick around, they should be instructed to maintain strict hygiene precautions to avoid infection before they leave.
Surveillance testing has been required across the system, but infection rates have diverged widely from campus to campus. They’ve been higher on campuses, like SUNY-Oneonta, that didn’t require students to test negative before returning to campus.
SUNY colleges will have to work with their county health departments to isolate or quarantine residential students who test positive or are exposed to Covid-19 within 14 days of the end of the fall semester. Malatras urged faculty and staff members to also get tested.
Binghamton University, part of the SUNY system, had already asked people traveling home for the holiday to be tested during the two weeks before they leave.
If students test positive, they’ll be put in quarantine, said Brian T. Rose, vice president for student affairs. If they can show that they have a safe way to return home, won’t be exposing any vulnerable people to the virus, and ideally have a bathroom they don’t share, they’ll be allowed to go home if they feel they can recover more comfortably there. The university did not immediately respond to a question about how students could show any of those things.
“The last thing we want is for someone to be quarantined on campus, to be miserable, and break quarantine,” Rose said. Asked what would happen if someone who had tested positive insisted on flying home, he answered, “fortunately, I’ve never had to face that problem.”
About 9,000 Binghamton students are expected to travel home over the holidays, and the university has the capacity to test them all, Rose said, over a two-week period.
Asked whether the SUNY system, as a whole, would consider letting students who had tested positive return home if they insisted, Holly Liapis, a system spokeswoman, said the given campus “would seek the opinion of the local public-health official who would determine if it is a safe movement. The goal always is to minimize movement of positives to reduce exposure.”
SUNY has emergency protocols in place if a student defies public-health orders to self-isolate or quarantine on campus, Liapis said. Sanctions could include academic or housing suspension, or even permanent dismissal from the university.
In Practice, Plans Vary
The White House Coronavirus Task Force this month specifically recommended that Missouri, a state with rising counts of Covid-19 cases, “test all university students before dismissing them for Thanksgiving.”
Nevertheless, the University of Missouri at Columbia plans to continue testing only students who are symptomatic, said Christian Basi, a university spokesman. “That, along with strict enforcement of those who don’t abide by the guidelines and county requirements, has served us well as we’ve continued to have in-person and hybrid classes this semester,” he wrote in an email.
The university decided that it could safely resume in-person and hybrid classes after the Thanksgiving break, according to an update posted on the university’s website. To minimize the chances of spread with students traveling back and forth, it plans to offer special meals and activities to encourage students to stick around over the break. Testing will not be required for students to return to campus, Basi said.
At the University of Wisconsin at Madison, exit testing will be voluntary, despite the state’s status as a coronavirus hot spot. Classes will be remote after Thanksgiving.
Students who test positive will be offered isolation space on campus, and those whom contact tracers determine may have been exposed to Covid-19 will be offered space to quarantine, said Jake Baggott, associate vice chancellor for student affairs and executive director of University Health Services. Staff members will work through the Thanksgiving recess to support students in isolation or quarantine.
On Thursday alone, 44 more students and 10 more employees tested positive for the virus. The Madison campus, which conducts surveillance testing, will be expanding testing for all on-campus students during the spring semester.
Virginia Tech is also strongly encouraging students to get tested before they leave.
Students at North Carolina A&T State University won’t be required to be tested before leaving for Thanksgiving, but they will need to bring back a negative test result when they return to campus, in January, according to a campus spokesman, Todd Simmons.
“As they leave, each residential student will receive a Covid-19 test kit with directions to be mailed back to our diagnostics lab between January 4 and 14, 2021,” he wrote in an email. “Tests must be returned no later than January 14, or the student’s housing assignment will be voided.” The campus has a positivity rate of 3.5 percent, and no students have required hospitalization, he added.
The health-association guidance urges students to quarantine for 14 days after arriving home. If that’s not possible, the guidance says, hold off on the hugs and handshakes, and use plenty of disinfectant.
Nell Gluckman contributed reporting to this article.
