Photo by Ali Meizels ‘23
By Jahnavi Pradeep ’23
Staff Writer
As the spring semester came around this January, colleges across the U.S. opened their campuses to students. These institutions each laid out their own plans to combat the coronavirus pandemic’s spread and usher in their students safely. However, many colleges have seen uncontrollable case numbers in just the first few weeks, reflecting their inadequate COVID-19 measures. In light of this, Mount Holyoke’s gradual reopening policies and COVID-19 measures have proven to be comparatively far more successful.
Mount Holyoke invited about 60 percent of its population back to campus on Jan. 16, Jan. 17 and Jan. 18 for the spring semester. All on-campus students follow the Community Compact: They get tested twice a week, live in singles with allocated bathroom facilities and eat takeaway food from the Dining Commons. Most campus buildings are closed, with a few designated spots, such as the Williston Library and Blanchard Hall, being partially opened for use since Feb. 1, 2021.
The College’s gradual opening of campus has specifically contributed to the lower numbers of positive cases. All students were required to observe a campus quarantine for 14 days, until Feb. 1, 2021. During this period, they were not permitted to leave campus, even to go to the adjoining Village Commons.
The campus has moved to its second operating level — Modified Normal COVID-19 Operations with Heightened Awareness — during which students are still mostly restricted to staying on campus and the Village Commons and are only permitted to step out via weekly campus shuttles to CVS, Big Y, Trader Joe’s and Walmart for essentials. Given that students have come to campus from all over the world, regulating their movement in the first couple of weeks has proven essential to containing the pandemic. So far, Mount Holyoke has had 34 cases since August.
This contrasts with the numbers and measures observed by a college such as the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which is part of the Five College Consortium with Mount Holyoke. As of Feb. 17, UMass Amherst’ COVID-19 dashboard stands at a staggering 1,657 cumulative positive cases since August, with 402 active cases at this time.
A valid argument is that UMass Amherst has a much larger student population. There are about 13,000 UMass Amherst students in total, both on and off campus, who are back in the area for the spring semester. However, having more students back is not an excuse for more significant case numbers, and instead reflects a greater need for more stringent campus rules and guidelines regarding the pandemic. This is something that UMass Amherst has not adhered to — their COVID-19 plan has not been anywhere near as comprehensive as MHC’s.
For example, while students participate in twice-weekly testing, there were no restrictions placed on their interactions and movement in the initial days of the campus opening. Dining halls were opened during the first week for dine-in food. While Mount Holyoke has barred off-campus students from entering the Dining Commons or campus buildings and from attending in-person campus activities and classes, UMass Amherst has no such rule. Its roughly 8,000 off-campus students have meals in the dining halls, attend classes and spend time in UMass Amherst dorms and buildings. This increases contact between individuals and chances of spreading the virus. Therefore, it is vital that policies such as those followed by Mount Holyoke are applied and interactions between students are limited. Once they have invited students back, it is a college’s responsibility to ensure that rules are put in place, that students follow them and that students are educated on the importance of social distancing. Thanks to this, Mount Holyoke is now moving to more relaxed rules, unlike UMass Amherst, which is regressing into a state of chaos.
It was only two weeks in, with cases passing 400, that UMass Amherst declared the campus to be “high risk” and suddenly imposed restrictions far more stringent than Mount Holyoke’s pre-Feb. 1 policies. Most students, except those with dogs, were not even allowed to go for walks outside. According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, in a letter to campus sent Feb. 7, UMass Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy wrote, “By acting aggressively now, we are confident we can contain this surge and more quickly return to normal operations, including a resumption of in-person classes and organized student activities.”
While the situation calls for immediate and strong action, this delayed response demonstrates the need to have a set plan from the start, like the one followed by Mount Holyoke. Suddenly imposing rules once numbers have skyrocketed only does so much — planning needs to happen from the beginning.
UMass Amherst and Mount Holyoke are a couple examples of this process to reopen college campuses. Other institutions in the U.S., mainly larger state colleges, have seen surges in numbers — UNC-Chapel Hill and Auburn University are such examples. In contrast, smaller liberal arts colleges such as Mount Holyoke, Smith College and Amherst College have seen fewer numbers and implemented stricter policies. Perhaps the larger colleges have something to learn from these smaller ones and should try to replicate some of their rules and strategies as soon as possible before their situations deteriorate further.