Say goodbye to sticky floors, fat stands and questionable punch bowls.
While college administrators across the country are struggling to keep their students safe in the classroom, there is one, formative part of the college that seems to be out of their hands: parties.
It took only a week after students returned to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before there was an outbreak of 130 cases of coronavirus. The cases were traced to four “clusters” – five or more positive people – in UNC bedrooms and one cluster was centrally located around an outhouse outside the campus.
Meanwhile, in the same amount of time, 19% of more than 400 students tested positive for the virus at the University of Notre Dame. At the famous Indiana school, the outbreak was credited for partying on campus. There were at least two meetings where social distance was not practiced and masks were not worn, leading to a large group of mostly male seniors catching the cough.
And despite asking students to place not to party, at least 20 students wanted to attend up to 1 hour last weekend during an off-campus bash hosted by Holy Cross students in Worcester, Massachusetts. To date, it has caused at least one confirmed case of COVID-19 and several more potential positive infections.
For months, frightened students have been working together in their parents’ homes, waiting for their chance at freedom – and to fill “Animal House” with their long-lost peers. What’s the point of going to university if you can hardly get a mono after drinking your beer from a common funnel?
But some students have reluctantly hung up their guns: “I have accepted the reality of the situation,” Ruby Reimbold, an incoming freshman at Syracuse University, told The Post.
“I was most excited to save up and go to games because it was my favorite part of high school and I heard ‘The Cuse football atmosphere is great,'” she said. Although football games are held, fans are unable to attend.
But now Reimbold is just nervous about not making friends.
“I think it gets a lot harder to meet people and participate in campus organizations because group meetings are so limited,” she says.
And she and other students increase themselves for the possibility of being sent home if they break rules of social distancing. After the outbreak at Notre Dame, classes were temporarily relocated online. Off-campus students were asked not to come on campus, and those living at school were told not to leave unless there was an emergency.
UNC students also had to return home after arriving on campus just two weeks ago. Classes are 100 percent moved online for the semester, and students have the option to cancel their housing without penalty.
At the infamous Penn State University party school, a petition from Change.org asking to send the news class home has received more than 4,000 signatures, after videos posted on social media prompted many newcomers to join a massive crowd and no masks wearing during a campus base.
In many cases, for what may be the first time, young adults smirk their caregivers for restrictions.
“University leadership should have expected students, many of whom are now living on their own for the first time, to be reckless. Reports from parties all weekend come as no surprise, ” wrote angry fellow journalists in an editorial for UNC’s campus newspaper, the Daily Tar Heel.
After the outbreak, student meetings at Notre Dame of any kind were limited to 10 people, although it is not clear how that will be maintained.
Some schools are already taking extreme measures to limit the celebration. In an attempt to create a “bubble” similar to that of the NBA, Albion College in Michigan requires its attendees to download an app that tracks their location and health data to monitor the spread of the virus, reports Newsweek. Called Aura, the smartphone tracker will alert the school if a student leaves the 4.5-mile-wide perimeter of campus. If they go out, students will have suspension.
At Cornell University, students may be allowed to party – when they first sign up, incoming newcomer Ryan Wong, 18.
“It’s a check-in system,” Wong said. “The reason they sign people up is for contact tracking, in case anyone tests positive.”
The university could not confirm to The Post that the application system is officially in place. However, they have asked all students to agree to a behavioral compact – a set of rules that encourage them to take precautions to prevent the spread of the virus. On- and off-campus meetings are limited to 30 people, and students must stay 6 feet apart and wear face masks.
One of the terms of the contract includes the agreement “to refrain from organizing, hosting or attending events, parties or other social gatherings on or off-campus that could pose security risks for me and other members of” the community. “
With so many rides on the decision, Wong, who said he does not use drugs, is still in conflict over whether he should party or not.
“You do not want to get yourself COVID and then have to quarantine for a few weeks, or give it to your family when you return,” he said. Because he is from the Bay Area of California, he plans to follow the 14-day quarantine of New York before moving to Cornell’s Ithaca campus.
But after his high school senior year is short, Wong does not have much hope for his first semester.
“At any point, they can just cancel in person [classes] and we could be sent home, ”he says. “It’s kind of expected.”
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