Alison Bernstein, Ph.D.:
Will everyone have a single? How can they have enough space for all the students if everyone is in a single? What are they doing for testing and tracing on campus? What is the plan if someone gets sick? Where will they quarantine people? Are students and professors required to wear masks in classrooms and other common areas? Will hand sanitizer and disinfectant be available in all bathrooms, entrances, and in the hallways of dorms? What are they doing about meal service?
These are just a few of the questions I would have if my kids were college-aged.
Jack Lipton, Ph.D.:
I think there’s a lot of risk for students going to or going back to college, particularly in high-density housing. Much like the cruise ships and aircraft carriers that saw Covid-19 rip through them, students in high-density housing will be at a high risk for transmission. That doesn’t necessarily mean they will become very ill, but they will endanger others who are susceptible to becoming very ill, including faculty, staff, and fellow students who are at a high risk of severe response to infection.
So what do we do?
Get specifics. Any plan is worthless without how, when, and by whom it will be executed.
Be sure you find out what the college’s communication plan will be, what they’ll include in their reports, and how often they’ll send them.
Find out what the isolation plans are. Is there enough space for the number of people who may need to be isolated? What is the college basing that space decision on? How will isolated students be cared for (meals, cleaning, space to study, fresh air, online classes, etc.), so that their needs are met but employees are not risking exposure?
Will the college conduct contact tracing? If so, how?
Find out about support staff and faculty. What are the plans the institution is making for them? What happens to them affects the students, and vice-versa.
The number one thing we can do is systematic screening. In order for us to be able to know where the infections are, we need to do interval screening on a regular basis. One of the options we’re examining at MSU is testing all of the people who fall into high-risk categories (students who live in dorms, Greek housing, and university apartments; athletes; faculty and staff, etc.) every two weeks, looking for trends in certain dorms, staff positions, dining halls, etc. This will help us to control what we can control. For example, it could tell us that the air supply system is particularly bad in one building compared to another; using that data, we can make adjustments that will help protect more people. We can also contact people who have spent a great deal of time there and send them out for clinical tests and employ contact tracing teams. When we test every person who lives in a high-density environment, along with every staff and faculty member, on a rolling, two-week basis, we’ll also identify the asymptomatic spreaders who might turn a campus into a hot spot.
Finally, one of the things that we must address is the personal responsibility of every student.
We know the frontal lobes of college students are not fully formed. Their propensity for risk-taking is very high. That can show up in risky behaviors without thinking of the consequences.
Addressing this issue as it relates to the SARS-CoV-2 virus requires an entire campus-wide campaign to educate and train students, getting them socially acculturated to doing the right thing, and minimizing their risk of hurting others. We have to help them make better choices that are based on their commitment and care for the entire campus community, not just themselves.
As a college professor, academic researcher, and the co-chair of MSU’s Return to Campus Testing Subcommittee, these are the things I would hope incoming students and their parents would be asking about.