Nearly a third of students tested for COVID-19 got a positive result at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The university closed their campus on Aug. 19, only a week after the school reopened for the fall.
At the University of Alabama, sorority sisters packed into local bars and restaurants to celebrate their newly-chosen first-year members on Aug. 16. On Aug. 25, all Tuscaloosa bars shut down. The school might be next.
The University of Notre Dame is moving online for at least two weeks after two off-campus parties contributed to an outbreak.
Syracuse University was under threat of closure last week after at least 100 students held a late night party on the university’s quad, most of them maskless and all of them ignoring social distancing guidelines.
UR just finished the first three days of classes, and the pressure is on to see how we‘ll compare.
Now that stay-at-home orders have been lifted, the size of your social circle is largely up to personal discretion. We all have different preferences, most of which are reasonably considerate of COVID-19 risks.
Throwing an open party does not fall within these parameters. Attending an open party doesn’t make you innocent either. And inviting your entire social circle over to your dorm (illicitly) is unacceptably stupid.
We always think it can’t happen to us, until it does. We are not immune.
Chapel Hill students almost certainly didn’t expect their plans for the semester to be ruined so quickly. They underestimated COVID-19’s severity and overestimated their resistance to it.
On campus, we’re already noticing office employees using their masks as chin straps, and students foregoing masks entirely when walking from their rooms to the exit.
After news broke about the Syracuse University (SU) gathering, SU Vice Chancellor Mike Haynie said in a statement that the anticipated positive COVID-19 cases might shut the school down.
“I want you to understand right now and very clearly that we have one shot to make this happen,” Haynie said. “The world is watching, and they expect you to fail.”
The world generally isn’t watching UR. Don’t make this our claim to fame.
If you see a violation of COVID-19 restrictions, please file a COVID-19 Incident Report with the University.
The Editorial Board is a weekly Opinions article representing the view of the Campus Times, co-written by Editor-in-Chief Hailie Higgins, Publisher An Nguyen, Managing Editor Corey Miller-Williams, and Opinions Editor Lucy Farnham.
