A Campus’ ‘New Normal’: How Colleges Might Adapt to Social Distancing
Even as the Cal State system has announced online operations for Fall 2020, many colleges have realized that they can’t afford to stay closed and are scrambling to resume in-person operations. Bringing young adults away from their older relatives and back to campus seems wise in theory, but the reality is that college life seems to be the exact opposite of quarantine. Shared living spaces, open-floor plan libraries, and buffet dining set off red sirens in the minds of individuals who have been home for months at this point. So what are campuses considering as they make plans to reopen? The American College Health Association (ACHA) recently published a set of recommendations for college administrators to consider, opening with the sentiment that “meticulous adherences to public health practices… is the campus’ new normal.” While these practices are necessary for a healthy student body, many of them have the potential to permanently alter America’s idea of the classic college experience. Here are my main takeaways from the whopping document:
Single Dorm Rooms
Living with a stranger from a different state or country used to be something exciting to college freshmen, but in the days of COVID-19 the prospect feels a bit more risky. This is especially true if a roommate is coming from a part of the country with a high-transmission rate. ACHA recommends that colleges begin to fill residence halls with one student to one room, preferably one student to one bathroom. For many socially anxious or independent individuals, the prospect of single rooms feels like a lifeline; it certainly is for upperclassmen who have had the roommate experience but are ready to move on to an option with more privacy.
On the other hand, roommates drastically drive down the price of college living for both parties. Roommates split the costs of groceries, toilet paper, and fridges, in addition to sharing the time burden of cleaning (now more important than ever). Campuses may simply not have enough room to accommodate single dorms and may have to push upper-classmen out of housing agreements. Harvard College, for example, can already house less than 2,000 freshmen in its typical Harvard Yard, and this would likely go down to less than 1,000 in the case that single occupancy was needed. Where will the overflow freshmen be housed, and how will the administration decide which freshmen have to miss out on the coveted Harvard Yard experience they advertised?
Smaller Class Sizes
This past week, the CDC publicized information about a true case of a single individual with COVID-19 going to a choir practice of 61, eventually infecting 53 individuals. Any large congregation of people poses the risk of COVID-19 transmission, but it also makes the efforts of contact tracing even more difficult in the (inevitable) event of an on-campus case. After all, who can name all one-hundred students they may have rubbed elbows with in their Introductory Chemistry Class? Lecture hall classes might as well be held to the same standards as concerts for the time being and cease to continue. As of now, the ACHA has recommended classes of no larger than 30 students at a time. Unless colleges are ready to hire drastically more faculty to accommodate the increase in sections for each course, they may consider whittling down class meeting times so that staff and building space can be stretched out. How this will impact curriculum planning is still a mystery. Possibly we could see more transitions to a flipped classroom model so professors can use their reduced class time to the fullest. However, students will have to wear PPE for the duration of the class-time, so a discussion-based curriculum may not be ideal.
Plexiglass Libraries
If campus libraries are even allowed to reopen, they face a challenge in making sure that students are properly spaced out and can disinfect their space once they leave. ACHA recommends doing away with any potential fomites such as communal pens or staplers. In addition, the association makes the creative recommendation to “place plexiglass in workspaces where people must face each other.” Libraries will have to consider drastically changing their lay-out from one meant to enhance collaboration and community to one that favors isolation and practicality. Those trendy bean-bag chairs may be the first to go, swapped out instead for geometric desks that are easy to wipe down with a Lysol cloth. The presence of aggregate seating for study groups is a matter of individual college choice, but big round tables cut into pizza slices with plexiglass seem like they could become a new library’s accessory.
Take-Out Dining Halls & Cohort Dining
The university dining hall is the setting of many pre-college dreams and post-college nightmares. But between the long lines, buffet-style salad bars, and clustered chairs, dining halls will have to change the way they feed their students. The ACHA has recommended a number of practices, including pre-portioning meals in lieu of self-service or opting for takeout meals only. There have even been talks of “cohort dining” to spread out diners throughout the day and avoid a crowd of students during the lunch rush. With that being said, the dining hall is where a lot of new students bond; they may have to bond over takeout at a six-foot distance from now on. In addition, college dining has fought for years to combat food waste, but one can only wonder if pre-portioned meals will lead to increased or decreased total food consumption and in effect revenue.
Sports
Sports are a lifeline for many colleges’ alumni networks and subsequent pocketbooks, so it’s understandable that the collegiate athletics season has been a hot topic of conversation. The problem with making a blanket statement on sports, as evidenced by the ACHA’s ruling, is that different sports have vastly different risk levels. The level of risk mainly depends on the level of possible physical distancing (golf vs. wrestling) and the use of a ball as a fomite. For all athletes, colleges will have to ensure proper social distancing and sanitization ability in training facilities. Group huddles or crowded locker rooms may not carry the same magic as they used to.
If there were to be an outbreak of COVID-19 on a college campus, athletes are more likely to be patient zero due to their travel schedules and the necessity for physical contact. Sports medicine departments may have to expand their departments to cover the regular screening of all athletics team members in order to ensure a positive case can immediately be isolated. At the same time, one also has to ensure social distancing can occur at the screening sites; no one wants a crowd of potentially infectious students waiting in line for an examination. One possible action, though not a complete solution, maybe temperature checks at every practice or set times for each athlete to come in and get screened.
Isolation Measures
Countless prevention measures would be nothing if there wasn’t a concrete response protocol to an actual case. The ACHA recommends that colleges plan the same response to any potential case: isolate the individual and quarantine their contacts. This presents a further challenge to University Housing; where can one isolate a large number of potentially sick people while preventing community transmission? Quarantine in a college dorm is certainly different than quarantine in a multiroom home; there isn’t room for a fourteen-day supply of groceries, a laundry machine, or exercise equipment. If colleges plan to isolate their students in campus facilities, they will need to brainstorm how to arrange food delivery, healthcare, remote learning, and emotional counseling for a number of students unable to leave their 8 by 12 squares of floor.
Even though these changes to colleges seem scary, it is important to remember that there is always hope that with proper scientific innovation, these changes can be temporary. During years before the polio vaccine was developed, for example, movie theatres and schools would regularly close during summer to prevent infection. As disappointing as the decision was and as long as this remained a common practice (40 years, to be exact), it eventually came to a close. As we await a modified normal for an indefinite amount of time, we can focus on the things we can control during these times: our support for the scientific community, our attitudes, and our compassion for the communities we live or study in.
