By Kennedey Conaway and Katherine Jones
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writers
With college students making a return to school this spring in the Baltimore area, universities are taking precautions to avoid the spread of COVID-19 on campus.
Morgan State University and Towson University are two of the local colleges that allowed students to return to campus this spring after having fully remote fall semesters.
Each campus has reduced the number of students allowed on campus this semester to nearly less than half of its typical population. Factors such as whether a student participates in university athletics or has an in-person/hybrid class determines whether a student could return to campus.
“We have space for about 2,300 students to live in university housing for this spring semester,” said Kelly Hoover, Towson’s assistant vice president of student affairs. “We ended up with, I think, maybe 1,200 or so students who are actually living on campus this semester.”
Both Towson and Morgan State are requiring their on-campus students to test at least twice a week for a period of time throughout the semester to keep track of the COVID-19 cases on campus.
Towson freshman Jake Shindel said he benefitted from the weekly tests after learning one of his friends had tested positive through one of the required on-campus rapid tests. It was later that he learned his friend had a false positive.
Shindel reported his potential exposure on his daily QuickScan, a survey all on-campus Towson students must take every morning.
“As soon as I found out that I knew someone who we thought tested positive, I filled it out and said that I was a close contact and I had a sore throat,” Shindel said. “I ended up leaving like an hour later to go get tested.”
When it was confirmed he had a positive test result, Shindel received multiple emails and phone calls from the university’s health center, housing and residence life, and the Maryland Contact Tracing team. Almost immediately, he was moved to the university’s designated isolation residence hall, known as Tower C.
“It’s been coming from a lot of different places,” said Shindel, who experienced a fever and sore throat the day he tested positive and a cough for a few days after. . “They’re all just checking up on us and making sure we’re okay.”
Hoover said there are designated staff members who work in these residential spaces for those who are in quarantine and isolation at Towson.
These staff members are there to help residents with anything from getting them items they may need, to being there as support for those in quarantine or isolation, Hoover said.
“It’s hard to be in quarantine and isolation spaces,” Hoover said. “They’re doing those referrals and making sure that students are not feeling like, even though they are in this space where they’re quarantining or isolating, that they’re not feeling forgotten.”
Checking in on a student’s mental health is also an important aspect of Morgan State’s process of isolation and quarantine.
“This is for me personally, as a public health professional, that we don’t lose sight of our physical health and always take in consideration our mental health as we make our plan,” said Anita Hawkins, an associate professor at Morgan State University.
Morgan State health professionals also want to educate their students and community more on the importance of testing and CDC guidelines.
“One of the things we want to do better is in the education piece and that is the hardest. Constantly reminding folks we need to be vigilant, and not get fatigue so soon,” Hawkins said.
Towson and Morgan State have announced plans to have students fully return in the fall. Morgan State will begin its process of face-to-face instruction this summer starting in early July.
“The plan is to return back in the fall,” Hawkins said. “We will continue to have a testing protocol and follow distancing guidelines.”
As for Towson, it is still undecided if they will continue testing students in the fall.
“We will follow guidance from the University System of Maryland and Towson University Medical Advisory Committee (TUMAC),” said Anthony Skevakis, Towson’s associate vice president of student affairs and dean of students. “I envision that we will continue to engage in sentinel testing in the fall.”