Chaos at UW-Madison dorms leads some students to head back home
As she climbed down nine flights of stairs and stepped into the dark night in the pouring rain outside Sellery Hall, Lauren Tamborino described the scene as “apocalyptic.”
Students were running to the Walgreens across the street and the nearby Fresh Market, stocking up on food and supplies. They had been told they had just a few hours before they would be isolated in their dorms for two weeks, inciting panic.
“There were people buying gallons of milk, boxes of cereal, tons of food, cases of water, just stocking up for this quarantine,” Tamborino said.
Teachers started emailing her to say deadlines on homework assignments were being pushed back. Students were told if they left the dorms after the 10 p.m. lockdown, they would not be allowed back in.
And all of this was unfolding on Wednesday, one week to the day after classes started.
UW-Madison officials sent out information about when meals would be delivered and promised medical care, mental health support and strict enforcement of restrictions on gatherings.
“We know you want to be here and we hope this necessary step will help us achieve the goal of remaining on campus all year,” said a message to students in Sellery and Witte halls.
Watching the chaos, Tamborino knew one thing: She did not want to be here.
She went back to her room and called her mom, who agreed to bring her back home to Slinger. She packed as much as she could, with little assurance or motivation to come back after two weeks.
She was far from alone; numerous students were heading out of the dorms and the city by Friday.
“The whole system is stupid in my opinion in how they’re trying to control things,” she said Friday. “They never should have had us come to campus in the first place. They never should have had us move into the dorms in the first place, because they knew this was going to happen.”
In the days before the quarantine was announced, students living in Sellery and Witte Halls said they felt like COVID-19 was encroaching from all sides.
Tamborino said people didn’t look very sick. No one was walking around coughing or sneezing. But the rumor mill was churning: Word spread that students were testing positive on the 7th floor, and then the 6th floor, and then people heard that someone a few doors down had been moved into isolation.
Tamborino was tested on arrival and had another test scheduled for Friday. She missed it because by then she was already home.
A nearly impossible situation
Grant Salzsiedler, a freshman actuarial science student who lived in Witte Hall, was one of those who ended up contracting COVID-19. As of Friday, he was living in Hotel Indigo in downtown Madison, where the university had moved him.
At UW-Madison, a 14-day quarantine is required for students who have been exposed to COVID-19. A 10-day isolation is for students who test positive.
Salzsiedler said he had been following the rules, which allow UW-Madison dorm residents to have one guest each. The guests can be from any residence hall on campus. In double-occupancy rooms, that means up to four students can be in a dorm, maskless, with the door closed, freshmen students told the Journal Sentinel.
Salzsiedler’s roommate had a friend over and they had hung out in the room one night. She later called to say two of her friends had tested positive for COVID-19, and they should all get tested, too.
He and his roommate stayed in their dorm room and got tested the next day — the day after classes started. Two days later, the results of Salzsiedler’s roommate were positive, and he was moved out of Witte Hall. Then Salzsiedler’s test came back positive as well.
Several freshman students told the Journal Sentinel that these type of gatherings were contributing to spread as students with ID access to dorm buildings could bring in different guests each night if they wanted to.
“It just seems like those two big residence halls, where there’s a thousand kids in it and everyone has to use the same bathrooms and go to the dining hall to get food — I don’t want to say it’s inevitable because there’s definitely people that haven’t been following the rules,” Salzsiedler said. “But you just have a tough time believing that no one’s going to get it.”
Tamborino said she believed even nonresidents were entering the dorms because other students were swiping them in. On Wednesday, Sellery Hall staff sent an email saying they would implement an “ID Checking Station” at the hall’s main entrance making sure every resident individually scanned their student ID to enter the hall, due to “increased concerns about guests.”
By then, COVID-19 was already raging through the dorm population.
On Thursday, the university said 10% of Witte Hall’s COVID-19 tests and 17% of Sellery’s came back positive.
Panicked and unsure what to expect
Before moving to Madison, freshman Claire Nack had been careful about hanging out with her high school friends. But college was different, she realized, despite the sense of security that comes with small gatherings on or off campus.
“A lot of us think we’re safe when we’re with our friends and there’s like four of us and we’ll take our masks off before hanging out,” Nack said. “And you think you’re safe, but one of us could have been exposed. And you’re seeing a different four people in your room every day because you’re trying to meet people.”
Nack tested positive for COVID-19 just two days into the school year. When it happened, Nack, of Apple Valley, Minnesota, had two hours to pack some clothes and everything she needed for her school work. She moved out of her room in Witte Hall and over to Mack House, where others would be isolating.
She felt panicked and didn’t know what to expect.
It was quiet at first. She watched Netflix and did her schoolwork. She ordered her meals through university dining and they were delivered on time. She reported her symptoms — not much more than a runny nose and a sore throat. She studied outside in a gated area when the weather was nice.
Then, one day, a roommate arrived. “Everyone that comes here, we’re all like, ‘Oh, what day is it for you?’ “she said. “That’s a conversation starter!”
Nack and two other students in isolation at Mack House, freshman Lindsay Dubin and Sophie Reeves, said they were impressed by how the university had cared for them. The two were roommates in Kronshage Hall.
Dubin thinks she got the virus when she met up with a friend from back home — the San Francisco Bay area — who lives off campus. She went to visit him and they “were not very smart,” she said. They hugged.
When she and Reeves heard that Dubin’s childhood friend tested positive for COVID-19, the two were sure they were positive as well. Tests proved them right.
“I wasn’t completely surprised getting the result, but it was still sort of upsetting,” Reeves said. “I think since the pandemic started, it’s just been so much mystery around what coronavirus is, so actually finding out that we have, it was scary. Luckily our symptoms are pretty mild.”
The two have also spent a lot of time sleeping, due to COVID-19 fatigue.
Still, all the students have few social options. Salzsiedler hasn’t left his hotel room since he arrived. His classes give him routine, and he watches a lot of Netflix.
He’s been trying to stay positive and video-chatting with friends, but it can get lonely, he said.
“I’ve just kind of got to tough it out,” he said.
In a video message to students Thursday, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Lori Reesor said she knows quarantining will take a mental toll on students but called on students to make a shared sacrifice to curb the spread.
“At this point, thankfully, we aren’t aware of any hospitalizations of students or employees. But the truth is, we don’t know the long-term effects of COVID-19,” Reesor said. “We do know it’s a highly infectious disease that has killed tens of thousands of people just in the U.S. and that our best protection is masking, physical distancing and washing hands.”