JBU students start moving into dorms

Spokeswoman details quarantine plan

“Students in quarantine will be restricted to a single room and need to remain there except for an appropriate amount of time each day that they can go outside to walk on the trails or get some fresh air, apart from others.”

— spokeswoman Julie Gumm

Move-in began Tuesday at John Brown University residence halls with no students in quarantine housing, a spokeswoman said.

The private Christian university in Siloam Springs in an email Sunday to students and parents referred to six students “currently in quarantine.”

But they had been cleared by Tuesday, a John Brown University spokeswoman said.

“We did have one student test positive, but they are recovered and the five students that were in quarantine have been released. These were all international students who have been living on campus this semester,” Julie Gumm said in an email Tuesday.

Gumm described procedures in place. A student who tests positive for covid-19 is moved to what is considered isolation housing, while a student is moved to quarantine housing because of possible exposure to covid-19.

A quarantined student will generally be tested “at least 3-5 days after exposure,” Gumm said.

If the test is positive, the student moves to isolation housing. After a negative test, the student “will still have to remain in quarantine for the full 14 days from exposure to the positive person,” she said.

Students in quarantine may leave campus to return home, but the university has also set aside approximately 100 isolation and quarantine beds, Gumm said.

In the spring — before the closure of campus housing — John Brown University had 826 students living on campus, Gumm has said.

Students in quarantine or isolation will participate in class remotely via the Zoom video app and the use of 58 newly purchased video conference cameras, she said. Meals will be delivered.

“Students in quarantine will be restricted to a single room and need to remain there except for an appropriate amount of time each day that they can go outside to walk on the trails or get some fresh air, apart from others,” she said.

The email from Sunday referred to four employees with active cases of covid-19, along with eight workers who have recovered from covid-19. Seven employees were in quarantine, the email stated.