Asa Daniels, senior staff writer
Over the past week, Berry College has announced plans for an update to their policy regarding quarantine and isolation protocols.
The last issue of the Campus Carrier included an article outlining Berry’s new quarantine and isolation policies for the spring semester. The Carrier posted a brief summary of the changes on their Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Members of the Berry community, including students, parents, faculty, alumni and others commented, or interacted with the post, mostly stating disapproval. The posts, collectively, from all platforms had over 300 comments and over 600 shares. Following the comments, Berry College posted an announcement detailing a policy change.
On Jan. 22, Berry College posted on their social media platforms about policy changes regarding student quarantine and isolation. The post stated that no students had been or would be charged for staying on campus during a quarantine or isolation period.
On Tuesday, another social media post on Berry College’s platforms further clarified the policy updates. The post stated, again, that students will not be charged for on-campus isolation/quarantine, but students are still encouraged to go home for isolation or quarantine and should communicate with Residence Life regarding any issues in that aspect. It also stated that Residence Life will continue working with individual students to provide meal options.
Dean of Students Lindsey Taylor explained that the $60 charge in the previous policy was to cover the cost of cleaning and sanitizing the rooms in which students stay when quarantining or isolating on-campus.
“Really the charge is just to cover the cost – we’re not making money, it’s just to offset the additional expenses and not charge the whole student body,” Taylor said.
Chief of Staff Debbie Heida added that any costs to the college are ultimately paid for by students.
“If the college is absorbing costs, it’s really all students paying for those costs,” Heida said. “There’s not some separate entity from what we take in, it’s part, of where [the college] needs to put in resources.”
According to Heida, endowment money is often used for scholarships rather than operational costs, like costs relating to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.
Taylor said that the Oak Hill Residences are serving as an ideal on-campus isolation and quarantine location since there are individual bathrooms for student use. However, the challenge of limited spaces continues, and students are still encouraged to isolate or quarantine off campus. Priority of on-campus living is for students who have to travel farthest in order to return home.
“We’re going to house the Baltimore student because that’s either going require a plane ride or being in a car over five, six hours. We’re going to make sure that student has a place to stay over that student who could drive home in an hour and a half,” Taylor said. “It does not mean there are no options on campus, it just means we have to be strategic in our review.”
Likewise, Taylor said that Student Affairs considers the safety of family members who are immunocompromised as well as other challenges students may face if they had to go home are in their discussions and conversations with students.
“A lot of the time, we know these students – we know the challenges of home – a student doesn’t have to come in and make a case because we have relationships with you guys,” Taylor said.
According to Heida, students who have initially stayed on-campus found that it would be easier to isolate and quarantine off campus.
“Another thing we also learned from students themselves, even from students who said, ‘I would like to isolate or quarantine on campus,’ is [they] then realize on day two of being in a room where you don’t ever move out of it and do things and you’re by yourself, doesn’t feel good and they go home after that,” Heida said. “It is much more comfortable to do this at home where you also have somebody who is checking in with you frequently or additional family members who can help with whatever [you] need done.”
Taylor further elaborated that food has and will continue to be provided for students, as the school explores options regarding how students can get it and what they want to eat.
“We work with [students] and that’s been standard since day one,” Taylor said. “Students are not going without food, it’s what do you want to do? What do you have options for?”
Taylor added that students can choose to stay at local hotels, but that food service will be more difficult to provide in those situations.
In relation to the comments on the Campus Carrier’s social media posts, Heida said that the community responses played a role in causing Berry’s response to occur when it did.
“We needed to have an answer sooner than we might have had otherwise,” Heida said. “It did [have an impact] in terms of raising the issue for us to say, ‘we’ll need to respond.’ The social media piece meant we needed to respond – you always want to respond when people are raising questions about what we’re doing – but those conversations were in place anyway, we just needed to respond more quickly than we otherwise might have.”
Heida also added that it is important for students to continue to be flexible regarding the continuing changes of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We need students to be as flexible as we’ve needed to be,” Heida said. “Every piece about this has given us surprises, so our ability to predict is just not there – there’s no crystal ball to tell us where this is going to go this week or the next week after.”
Taylor said that, though this has been a tense moment in the pandemic, she believes it is a good step forward as the situation continues.
“I think in this moment we know each other better, and it hurts – these aren’t the situations we try to create – but I think we’re in a better spot because of it and we move forward, and we continue to try to keep each other healthy,” Taylor said.
On the Berry College post from Tuesday, the caption noted that more information would be included in the weekly update email from the President’s Office. At the time of publication, the weekly update email has not been sent out.