Off-Campus Students Worry About Quarantine Guidelines
By Varsha Subramanian
Students at Boston University who live off campus have been given little to no information on how they would quarantine and isolate themselves should they contract the coronavirus.
The University has clearly outlined the quarantine and isolation protocols for students living on campus. However, they have not addressed the difficulties an off-campus student may face if they were to quarantine in their apartments with multiple roommates.
Rachel Lapal, BU’s assistant vice president of public relations, wrote in an email that students living off campus will receive guidelines from Student Health Services on how they can safely quarantine or isolate in their off-campus residences.
“All students in quarantine or isolation will have daily check-ins with BU’s team of healthcare providers to answer questions, monitor their symptoms, and arrange for additional care as needed,” Lapal wrote. “Additionally, all students will have weekly COVID-19 testing.”
If a student living on campus were to show signs of the coronavirus or test positive, they would be moved to residences set aside for quarantine purposes. Each quarantine room will have one student, a private bathroom, and a microfridge, and isolation rooms will have one or two students with shared bathrooms. Moreover, these students will also receive nutritious food from BU Dining.
The same comforts offered to students living on campus have not been extended to off-campus students.
Students living off campus usually live with more than one other person. Thus, the guidelines on how they must isolate and provide for themselves as per the University’s health guidelines is unclear.
Amanda Lee, a rising junior in the College of Communication, said that her off-campus living situation makes it difficult to quarantine or isolate because she has five other roommates living with her.
“We have a lot more roommates than what is to be expected, because some people are sharing a room,” Lee said. “And not only that, we only have on the bathroom, so I’m not sure how sanitary it would be to share one bathroom with everyone else.”
The University has said that every undergraduate student will be tested for the coronavirus twice a week, and all graduate students will be tested once a week. The University has made it clear that quarantine and isolation protocol will be taken seriously and failure to adhere to these rules can lead to the student being removed from campus.
Iolanda Perna, a rising senior in the College of Communication, currently lives in a one-bedroom apartment off-campus and has been for the last two years. Perna said that she wishes BU would provide quick and clear responses to the questions students living off campus have.
“It’s kind of vague because it’s like a lot of the times people won’t show symptoms or won’t even have a temperature so how are you supposed to know?” Perna said. “Obviously I have no issue quarantining in my apartment if it ever came to it, or if I got it or someone I was exposed to got it. It’s not an issue for me but I wish that they maybe would be less vague about everything. It’s not just off-campus students—it’s everyone as well. Also, the announcement came so late about what they want off-campus students to do.”
Susan Bankson is working on a doctorate at the College of Fine Arts and lives in an off-campus apartment. She said that she has major concerns with BU’s guidelines to quarantine and worries about how she will be able to afford to isolate.
“My main concern is that I have a shared living situation. I’m luckier than most that it’s only two people in a unit. So theoretically, if one of us catches the Coronavirus, both of us would be in lockdown, in quarantine isolation. So essentially you have double the risk,” Bankson said. “The other thing is on a graduate student budget I work multiple part-time jobs, just to support myself while I’m doing my studies and pay the rent. So the scary thing is that I don’t necessarily have the income to rent an Airbnb for a month, definitely not to rent a hotel for a month. So, financially, it’s a very difficult situation, if that were to happen.”
Perna said that she doesn’t think the University should make arrangements for off-campus students because it is the student’s responsibility to take care of themselves if they live off-campus.
“I’ve gotten the flu before—I got it two years ago—and I had enough things on hand, it took no issue at all,” Perna said. “I mean, you should always have a little bit of food in your apartment if there was ever an emergency. I know a lot of people don’t take that advice; I do, especially because I do meal prep—I workout quite a lot, so I always have food specifically for like a week, and I buy my groceries, a week or two in advance, and I always have preserves. So I think it’s really important, especially if you live off-campus, to take that responsibility and have your groceries or non-perishables in your apartment just in case you get sick.”
Bankson said that she wishes the University would provide off-campus students with the same emergency facilities on-campus students receive.
“It would be a great reassurance if we had an emergency option,” Bankson said. “Most students like myself, don’t have family in the state. So my family’s from Washington State, some students obviously have family even further away. So it’s not like we can even necessarily go home. We don’t have support immediately here in Boston. So the university providing a place to stay in an emergency for no cost would be incredible and a great reassurance.”