Madison Veldman hadn’t heard another soul in her residence hall until the yelling started. On Day 7 of quarantine in the New York University high rise, students started leaning out of their dorm-room windows, shouting to one another from the building’s east and west wings.
Veldman, a freshman from Indiana, quickly joined in on the chatter. She’d been excited to start college in a city she’d never been to before, but “being alone in this room for so long kind of killed that excitement.” Being able to shout out her window to her neighbors has made her feel a little better, she said.
Veldman is among the 2,700 NYU students who arrived at the Manhattan campus mostly from out of state last week and have been confined to their dorm rooms ever since. New York state law mandates travelers from hot-spot states quarantine for two weeks upon arrival, and NYU encourages students from outside the tri-state area to do so as well. Students were tested for Covid-19 when they arrived and will get a second test this week, according to the university.
It’s a familiar procedure at colleges across the country, where students are instructed to quarantine in their dorms if they’ve traveled, tested positive for the coronavirus, or come into contact with someone who tested positive. These measures are an attempt to prevent mass outbreaks that have already forced other campuses to shut down in-person instruction.
At NYU, quarantined students are only allowed to leave their rooms for medical reasons, but the university makes it so they have little reason to leave otherwise. Students have their own bathrooms, and NYU collects their trash from outside their doors. They can get packages delivered to them, and, of course, they have the internet.
Food delivery is another story. Last week, the social-media platform TikTok lit up with videos of students bashing what they called small, low-quality meals delivered at seemingly random hours.
Veldman said that one day she got breakfast at 11:15 a.m., lunch at 4:30 p.m., and dinner at 9 p.m.
“They’re just not good, and the portions are small,” Veldman said of meals. She worries students aren’t getting the caloric intake they need, and said she often receives only one small bottle of water a day.
On Thursday, after receiving complaints about meals and the food-delivery service, NYU emailed students to detail how the administration is responding by adding extra staff to make meals arrive quicker and giving students a $100 electronic gift card for external food-delivery services. Tuition and room and board at the private university cost more than $74,000.
“The food service was an unprecedentedly complex undertaking for the university and its food vendor, Chartwells, involving delivery of three meals per day to the door of each of the 2,700 students’ rooms, a substantial percentage of which were individualized, specialized meals,” Shonna R. Keogan, a spokesperson for the university, told The Chronicle in an email. “We fell short of the plans we had in place, which is particularly regrettable for students who are in the rooms all day and likely very much look forward to having something nice to eat.”
Students, meanwhile, created a spreadsheet for low-income students to list their electronic money-sharing accounts, like Venmo, to receive donations for delivery meals.
Danielle Gould, a sophomore, said students have, for the most part, forgiven NYU’s initial missteps.
“I don’t think it’s NYU’s fault, but I wish there had been more communication at the beginning,” said Gould, adding that quarantined students didn’t know the meals would contain so little food. “A salad is not enough for anyone’s dinner.”
For Gould, being back on campus is worth the trouble. Back home in California, Gould shared the space with two active and loud younger siblings, with both parents working from home. She said this created a difficult environment to Zoom in. And then there was the time difference. When students were sent home after campus closed in the spring, she had to wake up at 5 a.m. to attend her 8 a.m. English lecture where participation was mandatory.
“Personally, I feel that when I’m in a setting other than my home, I associate it with productivity,” Gould said, crediting the energy of New York City for invigorating her.
While dorm life usually means socializing in your hall and the sound of students constantly coming and going, this year, Gould said, “definitely seems less energetic,” though it’s hard to exactly get the pulse of campus when she’s barely seen another student since she’s moved in. Gould described herself as a social person and “feels a little lonely” in isolation, and “I’m getting a little tired of it,” she said. She’s been doing yoga in her room but said she misses going on runs.
To pass time, she’s been taking in the view from the 22nd floor, connecting with loved ones, and putting her room together. Gould said she feels “very lucky” that she lives in a suite-style upperclassmen dorm with a kitchen and common area.
Charles Hsu, a freshman at NYU, is quarantined in a dorm that has neither a mini fridge nor a microwave, so he can’t store any perishable foods. (He said the meals are getting better.)
Hsu and Veldman said they’ve both been relying heavily on their art, video chatting with friends, and catching up on their summer reading for classes.
“There’s not really too much to do,” Hsu said. Before the pandemic, he said, he would go outside and explore, but now he does the next best thing: “I look out the window for a good portion of the day because it’s fun to watch the people walking around.”
“And then I’ll watch Netflix for a really good, long time,” he said with a laugh.
The university said it has provided programming such as movement classes like yoga, mindfulness and wellness sessions, and social programming to combat student boredom during quarantine.
Hsu admits it’s been hard to motivate himself to complete exercise videos in his room.
This isn’t Hsu’s first time in quarantine this summer. After being exposed to people who tested positive for the coronavirus, he isolated in his bedroom at home for two weeks. That period ended just four days before he got to NYU. While he had an idea of what quarantining in a small space would be like, he thought being in the dorms would be more exciting because it’s at least a different place.
While NYU has hosted several Zoom sessions for students to meet one another, Hsu said it’s difficult to make connections that way. He prefers the real deal: in person. Hsu has also been using social media to connect with other students, but is optimistic that making new friends will be easier when quarantine is over.
Hsu was tested for Covid-19 his second day on campus. Since then, Hsu said, “I literally have not even opened my door unless to get food.”
Members of the NYU community will be tested at least once every two weeks this semester. A spokesperson for NYU said that of the 7,800 tests conducted on campus so far, only five individuals tested positive and another five submitted positive tests from other sources. All of those people are in isolation.
Hsu and Gould said NYU has a strict system for allowing residents to leave and has been diligent about checking them in and out of their dorms if they must leave. When Hsu was tested on campus during his second day of quarantine, he had to register online beforehand and only had a 10-minute time slot for the test.
So far, all three students said the other students in their halls have been well-behaved and stayed in their rooms.
“People are very scared of the repercussions,” Veldman said. Students who don’t comply with NYU’s quarantine policies could face disciplinary actions as severe as suspension or removal from student housing.
Hsu said the mood in his residence hall is that while students aren’t excited about quarantining, they also aren’t too upset by it.
“I think it is worth it,” Hsu said about being back on campus. “I would much rather quarantine for 14 days and keep the NYU community and New York community safe and healthy, than be able to go out and see people right away and start a cluster. To me that’s really, really not worth it.”
