UCF students prepare for return to campus

With an appetite for college life and just one in-person class on her schedule, University of Central Florida freshman Amanda Craig is eager to move into her new dorm room in the Towers at Knight Plaza complex on Saturday.

But before she picks up her key, she’ll swing by a campus parking garage for a coronavirus test, a required first stop for all UCF students living on campus.

“You can’t even get into the building where you’re moving in unless you get your COVID test,” Craig said.

Craig is among the roughly 600 UCF students who are expected to move into their dorms on Saturday, the first big wave of students returning since the university canceled in-person classes and encouraged students to stay away from campus in mid-March because of the pandemic. Fall classes begin Aug. 24.

College life won’t be what it was when students left last spring, starting with the moment they set

foot on campus. Dorm residents must make appointments to move into their rooms and must be tested for COVID-19 upon arrival. Their results are expected in 48 hours and during that time, students are expected to stay in “relative quarantine,” though the university didn’t specify what that meant. Craig said she understood she was to avoid unnecessary trips out of her dorm suite, which she’ll share with three other students.

The university’s on-campus housing is roughly 84% full, the Board of Trustees heard a couple of weeks ago. Some double-occupancy rooms have been converted to singles to allow for social distancing and other areas will be reserved for residents who test positive for the virus and need to quarantine.

Other measures intended to help prevent the spread of the virus include requiring students to wear masks in indoor common areas. About 70% of the fall semester’s classes, including all courses with more than 70 students enrolled, will remain online only.

As on-campus activities resume this fall at many institutions, students and school leaders should remember they have a responsibility to the surrounding communities to help control the spread of the virus, said Lynn Pasquerella, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. That’s particularly true in areas with relatively large numbers of virus cases, as Florida has had.

A recent study by Harvard and Yale universities recommended campuses test students every two days. But frequent testing comes with a high cost that many institutions can’t afford, Pasquerella said. UCF’s reopening plan, approved by the state in June, said it planned to test students living on campus and in Greek houses, athletes and those with symptoms, but noted “testing all persons creates a multitude of challenges.”

While UCF has estimated it will spend $4.6 million on measures intended to prevent the spread of the virus, including more frequent cleanings and 100,000 reusable face masks, the social scene is a big part of college life, and most students live off-campus, where the university has little control over their behavior. UCF’s reopening plan doesn’t call for widespread testing of students not living in its residence halls or participating in athletics.

“There’s really no way to monitor what happens off campus and what students are bringing back on campus after they’ve had these excursions into the community,” Pasquerella said.

Already, UCF has reported 451 coronavirus cases. A recent New York Times story reported the campus had the secondhighest number of cases in the country, though there’s no uniform way of reporting positive tests and hundreds of schools didn’t respond to the publications’ information requests. UCF, which last year enrolled about 70,000 students, is among the country’s largest campuses.

The risk of exposure to the virus, as well as the new rules for dorm life, including limiting outside visitors, may have discouraged students from living in the dorms. Craig, who’s from Vero Beach, said she’s heard from several high school classmates who decided to spend the semester completing their coursework from their families’ homes or living in off-campus apartments because they found the restrictions too cumbersome.

All of Craig’s classes but one, a concert band course, will be online this semester and many of the typical college traditions are up in the air. Yet, she’s excited to shop with one of her new suitemates for the finishing touches for their dorm rooms and hoping the basketball team can go on with its normal season. If the Knights take the court, Craig wants to be in the stands, playing flute or piccolo with the band.

Even after learning about the campus social distancing rules, Craig said she didn’t hesitate.

“I knew for sure I was going to move to Orlando,” she said.