As cases of the new coronavirus spread across the world, some colleges are already dealing with students and staff and faculty members entering quarantine.
Princeton University and the Lake Washington Institute of Technology are among the campuses that have asked students and faculty members to quarantine themselves, while the City and State University of New York systems plan to quarantine about 300 students and staff members returning from study-abroad programs in countries where the coronavirus has infected hundreds or thousands of people.
So what does a quarantine on campus — where students may live in dorms, sharing rec rooms, bedrooms, and shower stalls with dozens of others — look like?
The American College Health Association on Wednesday posted recommendations for how campuses should prepare for Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and numerous local health agencies have posted guidelines for higher education as well.
Here are some answers to key questions about the plans and how colleges have carried out quarantines in the past.
Who should undergo quarantine on campus?
Deborah Beck, executive director of student-health services at the University of South Carolina at Columbia and a member of the American College Health Association’s Covid-19 task force, said colleges should look to the CDC for guidance on whom should be quarantined.
For institutions in communities where there are already cases of Covid-19, the CDC emphasizes that the first step is to talk to local public-health authorities.
In announcing a first wave of student and faculty quarantines, for example, Amy Morrison, president of the Lake Washington Institute of Technology, wrote that she had “received official instructions from King County Public Health.” Lake Washington Tech is in Kirkland, Wash., which has seen several confirmed coronavirus cases; the college later learned a faculty member in self-quarantine had tested positive.
As colleges and universities have struggled to devise policies to respond to the quickly evolving situation, here are links to The Chronicle’s key coverage of how this worldwide health crisis is affecting campuses.
For colleges in communities without identified infections, the CDC offers more-general guidelines for who is likely to need to be quarantined. On February 28 the agency published a flowchart for deciding who needs what level of isolation, based on who else they’ve encountered and whether they feel symptoms. The CDC also has travel guidance, suggesting measures for recent visitors to countries where coronavirus cases are prevalent. For example, as of 10 a.m. on Friday, people returning to the United States from South Korea and Italy have been told to stay home and monitor their own health for 14 days, while recent visitors to China and Iran “may be subject to health monitoring” by authorities. (Because scientists’ understanding of the coronavirus is evolving, CDC guidance may change.)
There are plenty of logistics that come with quarantining students.
Some institutions may already have a plan for the logistics, designed in case one of many infectious illnesses spreads among students.
“Infectious outbreaks on college campuses are really not a new thing,” Beck said. “Campuses experience the mumps, measles, adenovirus, GI upset.”
What kind of housing is necessary for quarantined students?
Because it could take up to two weeks for Covid-19 symptoms to show up, quarantined people shouldn’t come in contact with others for 14 days. One of the easiest solutions, if it’s possible, is to have students quarantine themselves in their permanent residence, which is often at home with their parents, Beck said.
For students living in dorms who can’t easily get home, colleges will have to provide a separate building.
“My feeling is there are institutions that already have that figured out. They have something lined up, whether that be an MOU [memorandum of understanding] with apartments or a particular hotel, or maybe they have room on their campus,” Beck said. “And then I think some are still figuring it out.”
The city and state university systems of New York appear to have such plans in place. On Wednesday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced the CUNY and SUNY systems were recalling students and staff members in study-abroad programs in China, Iran, Italy, South Korea, and Japan. The systems will put those travelers in a 14-day quarantine in specially designated SUNY dorms.
Ideally everybody in quarantine would get their own room and bathroom, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s guidance for colleges and universities. In early February an anonymous group of Princeton University students who had returned to the campus from China complained that the university had offered them quarantine housing with a shared kitchen and bathrooms, an arrangement the students called “dangerous” and “irresponsible.”
Beck suggested, however, that if many travelers without symptoms are undergoing quarantine at once, sharing a bathroom may not be so bad. “If you are in an area where you’re being self-quarantined for the same reason,” she said, “then having a separate bathroom may not be as important.”
What kinds of supplies and services will quarantined students need?
Colleges will need to deliver the students food and supplies. They’ll also have to help students keep up with classes while they’re quarantined.
Those with campuses in other coronavirus-affected countries are already seeing what it’s like to teach students remotely: Temple University’s Tokyo campus is moving all of its classes online until at least March 16, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. (Japan has reported that hundreds of people tested positive for the new coronavirus, and on Thursday the prime minister announced that elementary and secondary schools nationwide would close for several weeks.) Temple Japan faculty members and students will depend on Zoom, a videoconferencing service.
How do you make sure students keep to quarantines?
One coronavirus-infected person associated with higher education has already made headlines for breaking a quarantine. Last week an employee of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center attended a mixer held by Dartmouth College’s business school, despite being advised to stay home, The Dartmouth reported. He had recently visited Italy and had flu-like symptoms, according to The New York Times. He wasn’t tested for coronavirus infection until after the party, when other possibilities had been eliminated. His results were positive, and the state of New Hampshire put an official order of isolation on him.
In most states it’s a misdemeanor to break an official quarantine order, but doctor’s advice before that carries no legal weight.
Nevertheless, Beck thinks colleges would probably first ask, not order, their students and staff and faculty members to keep to quarantines.
“We believe that our students have a sense of community and that they will just self-quarantine,” she said. Colleges can seek authority from their local health departments to order quarantines if they run into someone uncooperative, she added.
What happens when students fall ill?
If a major outbreak happens on a college campus, Beck guessed that at many institutions, resources would come up short.
Colleges may have to rely on outside partners — that apartment building or hotel they’ve contracted with — and students’ families to house them, assuming that they are not so ill that they need to stay in a hospital.
Having students with active Covid-19 travel home, however, may not be recommended. Infected students and those who have come in close contact with them can put others at risk during their journeys or once they’re home, according to the CDC’s higher-education guidance. Instead, the CDC recommends institutions work with local health authorities to identify the right housing for sick students.
Though there are some characteristics that make this disease outbreak unique, infectious disease isn’t new to college campuses, and many have past experience to draw on. More than a decade ago, H1N1, also known as swine flu, swept the globe, including American campuses. Some institutions housed sick students in designated buildings; others made do with less-strict measures. In the end, however, H1N1 became widespread enough that it was a “fact of life,” as The Washington Post described it.
What the endgame for coronavirus is remains to be seen.
