‘We do not want to risk our lives’: Amid coronavirus scares, colleges try to keep healthy, calm
As fear surrounding the novel coronavirus spreads in the U.S., scares are popping up almost daily at college campuses. Administrators have canceled sporting events and travel to China. Some on campus have taken to wearing masks. Others have launched petitions to cancel class.
The concern has some merit: Universities house a large number of students in high-density residence halls and apartment buildings, conditions ripe for spreading viruses. Many of them are international students, recently returned from places such as China, which sends more students to the U.S. than any other foreign country. Others are Americans coming home from semesters or January terms abroad, or just leaving for overseas — and considering making other plans as the virus spreads worldwide.
Just as significant as the battle to keep students healthy: maintaining calm on campus without stigmatizing anyone.
The bulk of the nearly 8,000 confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide are in China, where at least 170 people have died. So far, authorities have confirmed five coronavirus cases in the United States, including in Arizona, California, Illinois and Washington. A person with a connection to Arizona State University is one of the people infected in the U.S. More than 160 other cases are pending.
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Cancel class? ‘We do not want to risk our lives’
At Arizona State University, the person infected “is not severely ill and is currently in isolation to keep the illness from spreading.” A spokesman would not clarify the person’s affiliation with the university when asked.
According to Arizona health officials, the person had just returned from Wuhan, China, the city where the virus is believed to have originated.
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Arizona State officials said classes and other regular campus activities, like sporting events, will continue as normal.
Regardless, some students have started wearing face masks. Demand for the masks has increased so much they can be hard to find in stores.
Roughly 20,000 people have signed a petition calling on the university to cancel classes.
“Students just want to know more information about this virus before going on campus,” the petition reads. “We do not want to risk our lives by attending class.”
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The university didn’t bite. Jay Thorne, a university spokesman, said it was not the university’s intent to appear callous to people’s concerns, but rather to follow the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Those guidelines currently state the virus does not appear to be spreading in the United States, and the “likelihood of someone in the U.S. getting sick with this virus is very low.”
The university has also issued a travel restriction to China. Study abroad and other academic programs are on hold as well, said Thorne.
Isolated in off-campus housing or stuck in China
Even potential cases of the virus have universities taking aggressive countermeasures.
A Miami University in Ohio student reported “very mild symptoms,” along with recent travel that might suggest a potential case of the coronavirus.
That student and his traveling companion are in isolation in off-campus housing. The university has also canceled the men’s and women’s basketball teams game scheduled for this week.
People there have also started wearing face masks.
The outbreak is also affecting American students currently in China. Benjy Renton, 20, a senior at Middlebury College, said he is currently stuck in Beijing. He had planned on doing a semester abroad, but Middlebury is one of several schools to have suspended its program. The college has asked students to arrange a flight back to the U.S. as soon as possible — an urgent task as airlines start to suspend travel to China.
Renton said he feels safe in China, albeit a little bored. He hasn’t been able to find many attractions that were open, and many students are watching TV in their rooms instead. He has also been trying to collect refunds for train trips for himself and friends. The spread of the disease hasn’t turned him off studying abroad.
“I know I will always be able to study abroad in China in the future and look forward to doing so next fall,” Renton said.
Emails to students from Wuhan
Back in the U.S., many universities are trying to get ahead of the paranoia that accompanies the spread of a disease, balancing a need to be both proactive without causing an unnecessary stir on campus. To that end, Robert Parker, director of the student health center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, identified 146 students who were from Wuhan and sent them a personal check-in email.
Within minutes, he said, dozens of them had responded. Most were pleased to hear from him. Others explained they hadn’t gone home for the holidays. Some were voluntarily refraining from attending class or wearing masks when out.
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Still, anxiety about the potential spread of the disease pervades the campus. Of the 33,850 undergraduates on the Urbana-Champaign campus, about 3,000 of them are from China.
Parker said the university’s clinic has been handing out facial masks, which helps allay some of the concerns.
“Some people are wearing a mask to protect themselves,” he said. “And some people are wearing a mask to protect others. That’s all just great.”
The concern doesn’t only come from the students. Parker said flustered parents and faculty may call for classes to be canceled.
Still, Parker said, flu season remains “far more concerning” for university officials. But Parker said this season has been the most successful in the university’s effort to vaccinate people against influenza. The school had ordered 14,000 vaccination doses, and they’re ordering more.
“We’re using every opportunity to vaccinate the kids and that’s actually going very, very well,” Parker said.
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Across the country, college administrators have encouraged students to follow protocols associated with avoiding viruses. Those include frequent hand-washing, refraining from touching one’s face, and staying home when sick.
Contributing: Perry Vandell, The Arizona Republic; Jessie Balmert and Anne Saker, The Cincinnati Enquirer
Education coverage at USA Today is made possible in part by a grant from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation does not provide editorial input.