It’s noon on the Monday of week eight and the University of Oregon campus is silent.
Brightly colored leaves litter the sidewalks, floating effortlessly over empty bike racks, neglected benches, and long-shuttered building entryways. Normally bustling with the grinding of skateboards, the laughs of friend groups, and hurried students of all disciplines, 13th Avenue is a ghost town.
Soon after the first cases of COVID-19 arrived in Oregon, on March 11, 2020, University President Michael Schill announced the University of Oregon would quickly move nearly entirely to remote and online operations until further notice.
Over the spring and summer, the University maintained fairly low case counts. But come late summer and fall, returning students and those fresh from summer activity would return to school, raising the campus alert level to high.
Nearby Oregon State University, roughly the same size as the UO, similarly transitioned to a Level 3 state, meaning in-person instruction is limited and response systems are at capacity.
Beginning late September, the University of Oregon would allow the incoming freshman class to move into the residence halls, albeit with some extra cautions and restrictions in place. Among other precautions, students would be tested upon move-in and have to wear their masks any time when outside their dorm room.
Incoming students, many having had their senior year of high school shrouded in disappointment due to missed graduations, cancelled proms, and any hopes of senior-year sports and activities all but dashed, were all too excited to move on to something new.
Something New
“I was excited to gain some independence and see what I can do,” said Ainsley Maddalena, a freshman living in Kalapuya Ilihi Hall this term. “[Before college] I was stuck in a negative rut for a while. My mental health got really bad for a bit… I really had to lean on people around me to support me.”
Having spent the last twelve years living in a small town outside of Austin, TX, Maddalena noted that people in Eugene were much better about wearing their masks in public than she was used to. Despite delayed test results, Maddalena described the move-in process and precautions as very smooth and has since felt at home in the residence hall.
“Personally, I feel very safe in the dorms because I know that I’m hanging out with people who are taking precautions for COVID, and I don’t really let myself hang around people who might not,” said Maddalena.
“I’ve been very glad just to be away from home,” said Alex Hernandez, another resident of Kalapuya Ilihi. Originally from Coos Bay, OR, Hernandez described having different feelings and views than many of the other residents of the town. “Eugene is definitely more fitting for me,” he said.
“We spend a lot of time sitting in the hallway, just chatting, and getting food and going to Insomnia Cookies in the middle of the night because we can,” said Sophie Kirkwood, a resident of Earl Hall. “You get used to wearing your mask every time you leave the room; it comes first nature.”
Coming from a boarding high school in the United Kingdom, Kirkwood mentioned the precautions enacted by some US colleges, such as the UO, have been stricter than she’s heard of her friends’ colleges in the UK. She said masks were not initially required there, and her friends had attended huge parties and ended up contracting COVID, infecting an entire apartment block and prompting the region’s second national lockdown.
“Some people have tried to get me to go do something, but I can easily turn it away because I don’t live in this country, I can’t go home if the school gets shut down,” said Kirkwood. “I need to stay here, and I think a lot of students feel the same.”
Not Enough
While most freshmen are elated to be in the dorms, independent, and away from home, some feel the decision to allow students to live on-campus in a pandemic was an irresponsible choice on behalf of the University.
Jaden Salama, a former Resident Assistant, decided to miss his fourth and final year in the residence halls in favor of staying home in Portland. Having contracted COVID-19 from his stepfather, he described feeling very ill with a heavy chest and impacted breathing, raging headaches, a terrible sore throat, and long-lasting loss of taste.
“Even if no lives are lost, even if people just get sick, it was NOT fun,” said Salama, “And I’m healthy, relatively fit, things like that. People my age have died from it. It’s not worth taking that risk, even for one person.”
Despite precautions, some students in the residence halls have contracted COVID-19 and been sent to isolate or quarantine in the Barnhart residence hall, along with any other on-campus students who may have been in contact.
“I don’t have a lot of faith, based on what I’ve seen, that the University would provide staff with enough time or resources to get things as perfectly clean as they need to be [in the residence halls],” said Salama. “It’s an impossible task.”
Many students have expressed similar sentiments, some via an anonymous Instagram page bearing the handle @covid.campus. Touting over 3.5k followers, the page is a place for students to raise concerns about individuals or organizations not following the COVID regulations set forth by the state, as well as a place to question if the University is doing enough to prevent the spread.
One post from early November reads, “I didn’t have to fear the virus like I do now. I don’t want to go to the grocery store now. All of these kids returning to campus are partying and not taking it seriously. There are a handful of students I know that tested positive from being careless. UO needs to do something about it.”
While the posts exemplify general frustration with some students selfishly not following rules and choosing to party or otherwise flaunt the virus, many of the posts also directly call out Greek organizations for lack of care and regulation. A post from October detailed that University Greek life accounted for 22% of active coronavirus cases in Lane County (and 44% of UO community cases), while the organizations and their members only make up 0.7% of the county population.
Once temporarily suspended due to taking mask-less group photos, Alpha Chi Omega is encouraging Zoom events for members, including weekly chapter meetings and initial recruitment events at the beginning of each term. Members are allowed to live in the house, provided they wear masks whenever they leave their room. A member of the sorority, Claire Pulkownik, follows the necessary safety precautions herself, but acknowledges that some others within Greek life are not.
“I heard of a few fraternity parties at certain live-outs that have really gotten big,” said Pulkownik. “[There are] a few that have also faced suspension. It’s rumored that there were people with COVID cases still living in their house.”
Pulkownik detailed the need for increased testing for Greek life members provided by the University. She also emphasized the need for the University Fraternity and Sorority Life office to hold fraternities accountable to the same level and standards that they hold sororities.
“I think it’s so outrageous that people would be willing to risk people’s health, especially within Greek life… you should be caring about not only members of your house, but other chapters as well. Even though we’re young and we’re healthy, there could be members that have underlying conditions,” said Pulkowonik. “We need to be holding each other accountable and making sure we’re prioritizing health over everything else.”
During the first gameday weekend, members of two different fraternities allegedly hosted a house party with over 200 people, mask-less.
“Seeing other organizations that are freely partying, I’m just like this is ridiculous, this is why people think negatively of Greek life,” said Pulkownik.
Moving Forward
There’s no doubt the decision to open campus residence halls, much like the decision to allow many fraternities and sororities to open their houses, would have been riddled with complications no matter the final outcome. Facing financial challenges and tough budget choices, it is undeniable that the University of Oregon has provided resources for students beyond those of many other universities in the country. Though, what more the entity can do to prevent the spread is still up for debate.
It is important to note that, accounting for less than their share of cases, freshmen are not exclusively to blame, and opening the residence halls may not be the Eugene community’s largest problem. University reports detail much higher numbers within the off-campus student community, where the University doesn’t really have any jurisdiction to police.
To combat this, dissenting students living off-campus need to heed University warnings, state regulations, and fellow peers’ cries for change. The lack of regulation-following, disrespect, and general selfishness exemplified by some individuals has had an effect on the entire community, potentially unknowingly (sometimes fatally) sickening fellow community members.
While there is no singular institution to blame, many of the individuals I spoke to stated that rule-following comes from the top. An effective political administration is perhaps the first step to a nationwide plan to combat the virus, including at and within universities. This will likely include a national mask mandate, as well as the continued washing of hands, sanitizing of surfaces, and abstaining from social activities for a while.
In the words of Claire Pulkownik, Greek life member, “If this is what we need to do to keep people safe, it’s what we need to do.”