My college reopened; now I have COVID-19
It’s been five months since the coronavirus pandemic shuttered college campuses across the country. Like thousands of other college students, I finished the spring semester on Zoom, attending classes and taking exams in my childhood bedroom in Madison.
My school, the University of Notre Dame, called us back early. The idea was that we’d be done with the fall semester at Thanksgiving, two weeks early, before a possible winter resurgance of COVID-19 hit.
The first week back felt remarkably normal.
The campus was bustling again. Newly arrived first-year students ate picnic dinners on the quad. Families browsed the bookstore merchandise. In the fields outside my dorm window, boys played pickup football. Normal didn’t last for long. An outbreak of COVID-19 has forced Notre Dame’s instruction online for at least two weeks and sent me and hundreds of other students into quarantine. If this is a precursor to what will happen at other universities across the country, we’re in for a grim fall.
I wanted college back so badly. I missed my friends, my professors, Notre Dame’s golden dome. Now, as I sit locked alone in quarantine, with COVID-19 coursing through my body, I miss it even more.
But is college possible right now? And is it worth it?
Online school strained everyone. Universities — Notre Dame very much included — hemorrhaged cash. Many students struggled with Wi-Fi access and limited resources at home. International students at some schools couldn’t return home, or returned home knowing that it would be a challenge to come back.
These challenges prompted the Rev. John Jenkins, Notre Dame’s president, in May to write a column in The New York Times headlined: “We’re Reopening Notre Dame. It’s Worth the Risk.”
Classes began on Aug. 10, after a week of staggered move-in. As of Tuesday, more than 470 of my classmates and have tested positive for COVID-19. I am one of them.
This was the risk.
The university has traced the outbreak to several large, off-campus house parties. The virus then seeped
out into smaller gatherings of friends, who spread it to their friends, and so on.
On Aug. 14, a Friday evening, my boyfriend came down with a sudden fever. On Saturday, he called the University Health Services hotline several times but couldn’t get through to schedule an appointment. On Sunday, he walked to the university’s testing center and asked for a test.
After an agonizing 20-minute wait, that test came back positive.
At that point, I approached for testing and was turned away. I was told that without symptoms, I didn’t qualify for a test yet — even though I had been in contact with my boyfriend.
On Monday morning, I packed a suitcase for quarantine and walked back to the testing site. I knew that if I tested positive, I’d be driven to an off-campus quarantine apartment. Notre Dame rented hundreds of apartments and hotel rooms, preparing for a scenario like this.
But at the testing center, it took several hours to talk my way into a test. My experience is shared by many Notre Dame students, who were turned away from the testing center. Even now, after the university expanded access to testing, many students are waiting several hours for tests. Many others can’t get through to health officials on the phone.
In the Times piece, Jenkins said that, informed by the best medical advice available, “We believe we can keep our campus environment healthy.” Now, Notre Dame is facing hard questions about its testing protocols, which failed to catch and contain the outbreak before it spread out of control.
These days, I pass the time alone in a two-bedroom apartment a few blocks from the gates of campus. I’ll be here until the end of August, watching summer fade outside my window. I can’t go outside. I can’t see visitors. The hallway is quiet, except for the knocks on my door when meals are delivered in a brown paper bag.
My case of COVID-19 has been mild so far, as are most cases of this virus among 20-somethings.
But of course, healthy young people don’t live in a vacuum. The virus can spread to at-risk students, older staff and faculty, and members of the surrounding community. And even the healthiest young people aren’t guaranteed to emerge unscathed.
The University of Wisconsin System and private schools across the state are proceeding with plans to bring students back to campus for in-person classes this fall. Wisconsin administrators are counting on tests and student behavior pledges to prevent major COVID-19 outbreaks.
Notre Dame administrators, too, say more testing and safer student behavior could still curtail the spread. Jenkins delivered a somber address to students last week, urging them to behave themselves — or risk getting sent home.
Some have criticized Jenkins for placing so much responsibility on college students to solve a public health crisis. But many other students have embraced his message, calling on each other to rise to the occasion and quash the outbreak.
An Instagram post, shared widely among Notre Dame students late this week, included a pledge to avoid parties, follow health guidelines and make an on-campus semester possible. “GO IRISH BEAT COVID,” the post read.
The question is whether that kind of enthusiasm and school spirit — typically reserved for Fighting Irish athletic teams — is enough.
Jenkins seemed to know his school faces an uphill battle.
“The virus is a formidable foe,” he told students. “For the past week, it has been winning.”
Genevieve Redsten of Madison is a junior at Notre Dame, majoring in English and anthropology. She spent the summer in Milwaukee as a local reporting intern at the Journal Sentinel.