The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Yale changes its mind: Beds for public safety personnel to be ready this week
NEW HAVEN — On Saturday, Yale University changed its mind and said it will make 300 beds available by the end of the coming week for New Haven police and firefighters who need to self-isolate because of the coronavirus.
“We are eager to help
New Haven with this need. We have been working to make this possible — and we agree that we should move as quickly as we can, in service of people doing extraordinary work on behalf of the New Haven community,” Yale President Peter Salovey said in a statement.
Mayor Justin Elicker expressed anger at his virtual news conference on Friday over the university’s explanation that it would take weeks to move students’ belongings out of their rooms.
Salovey, in his statement Saturday, said the housing would also be available to hospital personnel, in addi
tion to public safety workers. Elicker has estimated that he needed 100 to 150 beds.
On Friday, Elicker said University of New Haven President Steven Kaplan immediately said yes when asked for the housing and an agreement between UNH and the city is closed to being signed.
The Yale president on Saturday said it also has been “working with first responders to make expedited COVID-19 testing in Yale laboratories available to responders who have been exposed to patients.”
“Now more than ever, Yale and City Hall need to be on the same page. I know how committed all of us across the city and the university are to implementing an effective response to COVID-19, and I will do all I can to support this shared work,” Salovey said in his statement Saturday.
Elicker could not be reached immediately to respond to this turn of events.
Yale spokeswoman Karen Peart on Friday explained why it could not quickly open some rooms to the public safety workers:
“Our student rooms still contain their belongings, but we have teams planning the feasibility of packing and storing all the student belongings so that the rooms could be utilized,” she said.
“We are pursuing schemes that involve professional movers and packers, and using temporary storage. The process will
take weeks, as all of the residence hall rooms on campus are filled with student belongings. As soon as we have been able to clear any space, we have informed the mayor that we will let him know,” Peart said.
“We all wish the situation on our campus were different, but because our students had already gone home for spring recess when we implemented our social distancing restrictions, the rooms aren’t ready for others to live in them.” Peart said.
Elicker’s response on Friday was pointed:
“... if your house is burning down and you asked a neighbor if your kids could stay at your house and your neighbor said ‘no,’ but here is a check so you could stay at the Econo Lodge across town, what would that tell you about your neighbor? It is in these times of crisis when people are exposed for their true selves. Everyone needs to do their part at this very difficult time and writing a check does not exempt you from that fact,” Elicker said at that time.
The mayor said UNH has similar issues with moving student belongings out of the dorms.
Earlier this week, Yale announced it was contribuing $1 million to a fund to help respond to the consequences of the coronavirus in New Haven, and would match contributions up to $5 million.