Glory Reitz
Editor-in-chief
As the semester reaches middle age, Student Affairs officials work to keep COVID-19 numbers low and classes in-person.
Tiffany Slinkard, Vice President of Student Affairs, is in charge of all Crowder happenings outside of the classroom. And while coronavirus regulations in the classroom are relatively clear-cut, Slinkard’s jurisdiction is where things get complicated.
According to Slinkard, every time a student reports themselves as positive or symptomatic, the student affairs office assigns them to a “case manager”. The case manager calls the student to confirm their report and find out when they were last on campus, then reach out to everyone who was in close contact with them.
Mark Aubuchan, Campus Life director, said that “close contact” is anytime someone is within six feet of a COVID-19 case for more than 15 minutes. Even if a student was wearing a mask during the contact, he said, the college will still take precautions.
These precautions mean requiring COVID cases to go into isolation, and anyone who was in close contact to quarantine, for about two weeks.
“The number of days depends on so many different factors,” said Aubuchan. “It’s usually between 10 and 14. Some people can be quarantined for much longer, it just depends on how many close contacts they’ve had, when the close contact began… I don’t want to say ‘well, every person has the same quarantine period’, because it’s not that way at all.”
The system relies on students to report themselves if they’re feeling ill, so that case managers can follow up on the case and enact whatever procedures are needed. Slinkard said that they are careful to review cases for relevance, and understand that people can display symptoms for other reasons, such as allergies. The college asks students to monitor themselves carefully for any health issues that are out of the ordinary.
“It’s not a perfect system by any stretch,” said Aubuchan, “in the sense that we’re all trying to do the best we can to keep the students safe as best we can under difficult circumstances. And these are difficult circumstances.”
Aubuchan said students who live on campus and have been asked to quarantine have the choice to remain in student housing or go home. Those who stay on campus stay in their rooms and are brought food, but must clean shared bathrooms every time they use them.
“They always called to make sure I was doing fine,” said Sulma Perez, general education major. “Definitely the staff here treat you like family.”
Slinkard said there have only been a few students who have deliberately disobeyed instructions not to attend class while they wait out quarantine periods. But, she said when these cases come up, they are treated as conduct issues. Students who don’t comply with these official orders are issued a warning, and are eligible for discipline.
“Let me be really clear: we do not want to do that. We do not want to make this a disciplinary issue. But in some cases, where a student has been specifically told ‘do not come to campus until we have spoken’… and then we call you and you’re in class. That is something that we have to address.”
For the most part, though, Slinkard said students have been “phenomenal” in cooperating with guidelines, staying distanced, and not inviting outside visitors into the residence halls.
Aubuchan agrees, saying students have had good attitudes about wearing masks, going to class, and quarantining.
“It’s surprised me how willing people were to do what they needed to do to stay safe and stay healthy.”
Some students have internalized the issue enough that there are actually a fewer number than normal living in student housing this semester. Slinkard said many students preferred single-person housing, shrinking the number of residents, although the housing options are still full. Full, with the exception of two houses in Brown Residence Hall, and one apartment in Roughrider Village, which are reserved for students who need to isolate.
“We want nothing more than to stay open and educate students,” said Slinkard, “and the best way to do that is to keep everybody safe and on campus. And so that’s why the work we’re doing is so important, because we want students here, and we want them to have as close of a normal college experience as possible given these unique circumstances.”
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