Photo courtesy of Connecticut College.
Given the dire and unusual circumstances students are faced with during this school year, it is warranted to wonder whether the Conn student body has been successful in following the COVID-19 rules and regulations put forward by the World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and other courageous healthcare workers. Without a doubt, the current spring semester has been more successful thus far than the previous semester, as evidenced by the consistently lower weekly positivity rate of COVID-19 among students and employees of the school, as well as the decidedly brighter general outlook on the future.
That being said, Conn students have certainly made, and continue to make, mistakes in their attempt to limit the spread of the virus. However, perhaps we should not be disappointed by this, as the pandemic that we have now been wrestling with for over a year was both unanticipated and unprecedented, and thus one can expect Conn’s response to it to be only impressive, but not flawless. Indeed, this is exactly what it has been.
One could assess whether Conn has been successful in adhering to COVID-19 procedures in a number of ways. For example, one could cite the positivity rate, reference the party scene (or lack thereof) on campus, or compare Conn’s handling of the virus to that of similar institutions. One could even simply take a poll of those on campus. Personally, I prefer to judge whether Conn students have been successful in this endeavor according to the rules that Conn itself has elucidated and enforced on campus. These are difficult to miss because they are everywhere.
Wear a mask! Wash your hands! Watch your distance! These are the pithy directives drafted and enforced by Conn that appear everywhere you look. In fact, these three simple rules guide the behavior of all those in public spaces, everywhere in the world. Because these rules are ubiquitous and widely recommended by healthcare professionals across the globe, they must have the potential to meaningfully reduce COVID-19 infection rates, and insofar as this is true, it can be said that these measures are, though banal, highly important. Therefore, it is reasonable to wonder if Conn students have done these things sufficiently well, and if they have done them consistently and frequently enough to make them the social norm.
Wear a mask! I will say, happily, that I have not come across a person walking around on campus grounds without their mask. This is not to say that every single student wears their mask exactly as they should when they should, for this is certainly not the case. On many occasions, I have seen students wearing their masks over their mouths, but below their noses, which is technically a violation of proper mask-wearing. I have done this myself many times when I am not near anyone in an outside space. Given this, it does appear that there is room for improvement in terms of students properly wearing their masks, especially in dorms as well as in dorm bathrooms. Nevertheless, I am happy that most students do properly wear their masks when they should.
Next, we have the instruction, wash your hands! The truth is that whether or not we are in the midst of a pandemic, some people simply will not wash their hands, and we cannot fix that problem. (Thankfully, though, you would not want to come within six feet of these people anyway, so there is nothing to worry about.) As for those who are interested in keeping their hands clean, I do think that we have done a reasonably good job of this; however, this is true only insofar as using hand sanitizer is equivalent to washing one’s hands with soap and water. The only problem with using hand sanitizer is that if you are unlucky enough to use the wrong type, you have to immediately rush to the bathroom to wash the motor oil off your hands.
Lastly, we have the directive, watch your distance! The main issue with this one is that nobody seems to know exactly what kind of social distancing is appropriate in any given situation. As a result, students in a group tend to expect one person to orchestrate the social distancing arrangement, and this almost never happens, which inevitably leads to insufficient or improper social distancing. Thankfully, though, I do think that most students are at least reasonably attentive to the distance they are from others, especially when they are indoors.
The importance of social distancing during a pandemic such as this one cannot be overstated, as we are grappling with a highly infectious respiratory virus that propagates itself through the air in the form of respiratory droplets. Despite the obvious importance of social distancing, I think that this is the regulation that we all struggle to follow most. Again, I will be the first to admit that I have violated this rule countless times, as it is very difficult to follow. That being said, I do think we can be more attentive to the distance we are from others, especially when we are indoors, and I think that a concerted effort to improve upon our social distancing habits would serve us well, as well as put many people at ease. After all, we are near the end. With a few million Americans now receiving a COVID-19 vaccine every single day, according to the New York Times, and with many students already partly or fully vaccinated, we should soon emerge from the COVID pandemic as a population that is largely immune.
I think that the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed an illuminating truth about college students in general: they are cooperative, but perhaps only to the extent that their cherished college experience is not disrupted in a major way. I think that in a lot of ways, this desire not to let the invaluable four undergraduate years go to waste is something that encourages regrettable behavior. I also believe that this desire can explain some of the misdemeanors we have seen thus far on campus, including violations of social distancing in dorm rooms, lack of mask-wearing or improper use thereof, and more. Perhaps this obstinacy that inheres in college students is not something that can be eliminated but only mitigated.
To conclude, I believe that the uncommonly low prevalence of COVID-19 on our campus is a testament to the success that students, by and large, have had with managing the virus (and of course, to the success that Conn as an institution has had in doing so). I think that we all deserve more credit than we sometimes think we do, and I am extremely grateful that I have been able to spend my last year as a Camel on campus. I hope that others feel this way as well.
