Rising college COVID cases frustrate Fairfield residents

FAIRFIELD — Town officials are worried after a sharp rise in the number of students testing positive for coronavirus at Fairfield University.

“Some residents, they’re concerned, and I understand that,” First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick said. “I repeatedly reiterate to our residents that I’m concerned, too, and I’m doing everything within my power to make sure our community stays safe. It’s my top priority.”

Fairfield University officials reported 57 new coronavirus infections since last Friday. Those new cases bring the school’s number of active COVID-19 cases up to 121, according the school’s public dashboard.

It comes as the town handles its own cases in the schools. Most recently, there have been positive cases of COVID-19 at Riverfield and Holland Hill elementary schools, prompting the schools to close for the rest of the week and move classes online.

Jill Vergara, the Democratic majority leader of the Representative Town Meeting, said she has worried about Fairfield University COVID cases since Labor Day when students had parties on the beach.

Fairfield and Sacred Heart universities established strict disciplinary measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, suspending students for 30 days for holding large gatherings and potential expulsion for repeat offenders. However, Fairfield University officials have declined to say how many students have been disciplined.

Vergara said the town and universities could have taken lessons from other colleges that opened before them about campus parties. From the beginning of the semester, Vergara said, Fairfield University should have had more people oncall to regulate off-campus parties.

“It was really unsatisfactory to me because, at that point, the harm had already happened,” Vergara said. “They weren’t addressing how they were going to ensure that kids were going to follow the rules going forward. I don’t put any of this on the kids who are at these universities. It’s the administration who should know that this is typical behavior of people that age.”

Jennifer Anderson, Fairfield University’s vice president of marketing and communications, said the school took immediate steps to quarantine and suspend public interactions where necessary until Oct. 23.

“While overall campus rates remain low, aggressive mitigation strategies were warranted to manage the outbreak in these identified populations, and to limit further infection,” Anderson said.

In the town of Fairfield, 1,001 residents have tested positive COVID-19 and 145 people have died since the beginning of the pandemic, according to state health department data posted Thursday.

Sands Cleary, the town’s health director, said residents need to understand Fairfield is now in the second wave of the pandemic.

“Increases in cases are being seen statewide,” Cleary said. “People need to take the appropriate protective measures they deem necessary at this time, especially as it relates to schools.”

Cleary said it is important for people awaiting test results or showing symptoms to stay home until they test negative. When someone is out in public, he said, mask use and limiting gatherings with people outside the household are imperative.

Working with the universities

Town officials said they have been working closely with Sacred Heart and Fairfield universities, as well as the state to monitor surges in cases.

“We had started seeing some increases last week,” Cleary said, adding the town had conference calls with Fairfield University officials and the state Department of Public Health to discuss the recommendations the college should implement.

Cleary said the university implemented all state and local recommendations discussed.

The university, which normally serves a little more than 5,000 students, last week banned students living off campus — including those residing in the heavily-impacted beach area — from coming to the school grounds amid the spike in new infections. They were also advised to only interact with their housemates. The school also restricted students living on campus from going to the beach area, locked-down a dorm where there had been an outbreak of cases and canceled all sports for two weeks.

University officials also increased testing, Cleary said. He said the school is also ramping up efforts to ensure compliance with health guidelines. He said the school bolstered its security presence in the beach area to ensure students are not gathering.

“We have to be sure we are applying the appropriate mitigation steps to limit further spread,” he said. “It’s been a challenging time, for the (health) department and the university, to do all the contact tracing that’s involved with an increase of cases, but we are doing that rapidly and effectively.”

Cleary said officials are closely watching the numbers to see if the mitigation efforts are working. He said there was a slight leveling off of positive tests in recent days.

Kupchick said the town has been in regular communication with the universities throughout the pandemic, as has the state DPH, which is watching the numbers and advising the schools how to respond.

“We’re all getting guidance from public health officials, so I feel confident in that,” she said. “If the state Department of Public Health felt compelled to shut down every college in the state, they would do it.”

Kupchick said she has heard a lot of concerns from residents about Fairfield and Sacred Heart universities, including people asking her to shut down both schools.

“I don’t have that power,” she said.

Kupchick said she also does not have the authority to police students living in off-campus housing.

“For example, I can’t go and send police there making sure that they are quarantining, wearing masks,” she said. “We can’t do that. I can’t make sure anyone in this town is quarantining if they’re supposed to.”

She said the most she could do was encourage and remind residents to follow health guidelines, including washing their hands, wearing a mask and socially distancing.

“Hopefully, if everyone follows that advice, we should be OK,” she said.

Beach concerns

Sara Nuland, who lives on Turney Road, said beach-area residents are frustrated about the rise in cases. While the university has banned off-campus students from coming to the school, she said many of them still have to live and work in the community.

“There seems to be no oversight from the university,” Nuland said. “That’s the sense, certainly, here. And we’re sort of stuck, and really angry, because it does have an impact on everybody.”

Marney White, a Shorham Village Drive resident and professor of epidemiology at Yale University, said she is also frustrated and disheartened with the pace at which the university is releasing information.

“They don’t have any clear plan for containing off-campus cases,” she said. “I felt that they were not transparent with the community at the outset when they opted to take students back. I feel the communication remains insufficient.”

White said the school should have implemented other measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus, including having students sign contracts to stay within cohorts and a range of disciplinary actions if that contract is broken.

She said she didn’t blame the students “who are simply going about their typical college student life,” but rather the administration.

White said the cases in the beach area were predictable and the self-policing of students is not effective.

“Fairfield is emerging as one of the hotspots in the state,” White said.

What it means for the town’s schools

University students testing positive has been the cause of some anxiety for town residents.

Those anxieties are, perhaps, best exemplified by a statement school board member Jennifer Kennelly made when discussing an increase in the number of cases in town during a meeting last month.

“I don’t think there is anyone in this town that questions that the uptick in numbers is for one reason, and it is a clearly identifiable reason in this point in time, and it is the presence of those two campuses in this town,” she said.

With the town still dealing with its own cases in district schools, and Tuesday’s announcement that elementary school students would return to full-time, in-person learning next month, Kennelly’s statement in September is still relevant.

“If our public schools are prevented from going to full, in-person learning because of the numbers produced by those campuses, you’re going to have a revolution on your hands,” she said at the time. “Especially if it’s something that we can do something about.”

On Thursday, Board of Education Chairwoman Christine Vitale said the district is concerned with the increase in cases.

“We appreciate that these numbers, if they continue to grow at this rate, could ultimately affect our county numbers, and the county numbers are what drives what model that we will be operating in,” she said.

Vitale said the rise in cases at Fairfield University has the potential to change the timeline for full-time, in-person learning. She said she hopes the university takes steps to better control the situation.

“It does have an impact on the greater community and, ultimately, on our school district,” she said. “The board ... is watching it closely, and hoping that there is improvement there.”