As Ohio U welcomes students back to Athens, COVID-19 still looms large on campus

By: Henry Jost and Caroline Kohls

Although COVID-19 cases continue to rise on Ohio U’s Athens campus, Ohio U COVID Operations has been suspended since this summer due to lack of funding. Ohio U must also combat the ongoing pandemic in a state of overpopulation in Ohio U housing. 

“All of the IUC (Inter-University Council of Ohio) schools started changing their intensity of prevention,” Dr. Gillian Ice said in response to the change in Ohio U protocol. “Much of the U.S. has moved on from COVID and so it is exceedingly difficult to do the level of prevention that we were doing before. We’re still watching the rates, we’re still working with the Health Department actively. Providing testing, resources, and so forth, so it’s not that we went to nothing.”

Students who want the campus COVID-19 statistics should personally reach out to Ice for those rates.

Those who test positive for COVID-19 are still expected to self-isolate either at home, off campus, or in Ohio U quarantine rooms. 

Jneanne Hacker, the executive director of Housing and Residence Life, addressed the concerns regarding isolation.

“We recognize that there are going to be some students who simply just can't go home for a variety of reasons,” Hacker said. “International students, students who are out of state, students who perhaps have family members that are immunocompromised. We want to support our students in any way that we can. Should a student find themselves in a position where they can't transition home or isolate off campus, they can reach out to us and we will provide an on campus accommodation for the student.”

These quarantine dorms are singles mostly located on the back of South Green in Hoover, Wray, and Dougan. Some common study spaces have also been temporarily converted as additional spaces.

Avipsha Banerjee, a freshman from Kolkata, India confirmed that the university has been supportive of international students.

“[The resident advisors] have actually given us a lot of information about the COVID situation and what to do if we test positive, how to test, where to go, everything,” she said. 

She also stated that some of the information was given to the students in a handout and during orientation, but additional questions could be answered by International Student and Scholar Services. 

Even though masking is optional in class and there is little room for COVID housing, the rate of positive cases on campus is mirroring the case rate during the Delta surge on campus last winter. 

“We’re getting between 30 and 50 cases a day, and that's close to where we were with the Delta surge,” Ice said.

There are also some alternative options for roommates who test positive and students occupying single dorms. “If a student is currently occupying a single space, they can remain in their room,” said Hacker. “We've had a couple of cases where both roommates are testing positive at the same time and we can arrange for them to stay there.”

However, with the dorms full, there are few opportunities to take advantage of those alternative options. A number of doubles have been reverted to triples to accommodate the largest freshman class in Ohio U’s history. While Banerjee calls the situation “a little bit problematic,” Hacker claims that the changes were not anything out of the ordinary.

“Based on where we were at with our incoming first year enrollment, we actually had to go back and convert rooms to triples this year to accommodate the need and the number,” said Hacker.  

Because dorm space has been taken up by freshmen, sophomores have found themselves living in off-campus housing, including Rivergate as previously reported by The Post.

“In a high percentage of students needing to remain on campus to date, we've only had three students who've had a need to isolate on campus (this year), and I believe we've had close to 200 positive cases of on campus residential students,” Ice said. “So I think that provides a little bit of scale and scope in regards to those students who truly have a need to take advantage of on campus isolation.” 

“An average of 49 cases per day were reported in Athens County, a 71 percent increase from the average two weeks ago,” according to The New York Times.