Owls should be safe to return in person following Thanksgiving
In just over a week, the campus community will be traveling home for Thanksgiving break.
Last year, the college decided to finish out the semester remotely after Thanksgiving break. This was intended to stop any potential spread of COVID-19 upon return to campus.
This year, the college is returning to business-as-usual, allowing students to return to in-person classes after Thanksgiving. This has raised some concern about a potential spike in COVID cases following the campus community briefly leaving the Keene State testing bubble.
The Equinox recognizes the concern, but believes that the risk of a spike in cases is relatively low.
The circumstances are different this year. Around this time last year, COVID-19 vaccines were just starting to be distributed in the U.S. Now, almost 75% of adults in the U.S. are at least partially vaccinated against COVID-19. Within the campus community, 72% of students and faculty are fully vaccinated. Due to this level of vaccination both locally and nationwide, The Equinox sees low risk in allowing students to return back to campus after Thanksgiving break.
Also, a majority of the campus community is returning to states that have high vaccination rates and that monitor COVID more closely.
Following a year of hybrid and remote learning, it is important for students to be in the classroom as much as possible. Members of The Equinox expressed feeling disengaged after classes went remote for the final two weeks of the fall 2020 semester. An in-person semester should close in-person, albeit if conditions are safe to do so.
There are ways the college could enhance its COVID safety before and after the break, though.
As a preventative measure against the spread of COVID-19, The Equinox suggests that the college scale back on the larger in-person events on campus in the two weeks prior to Thanksgiving break. While these events, especially those taking place outdoors, have yet to make a significant impact on the college’s positivity rate, having less large-scale events could make it safer for students to go home and also return to campus after break.
Also, the college should hold another round of campus-wide testing when students return to campus, similar to the testing that occurred at the start of the semester.
To go along with the campus-wide testing, classes taking place on the Monday and Tuesday following the return to campus should be held remotely while results are being processed. Doing so will catch any positive cases before students return to classrooms and thus limit spread of infections.
Encouraging- and perhaps even requiring- students to wear masks both indoors and outdoors after returning to campus could also limit this spread.
To be able to return safely, the college needs to do its part in enforcing its COVID safety policies. This includes mask enforcement at indoor events and spaces on campus.
The reality is, students are not getting COVID from on-campus events. Large, off-campus gatherings have been the largest contributor to the spread of positive cases this semester. For the most part, positive cases have come from within the Keene State bubble, not from outside factors.
Thanksgiving will allow students to spend quality time with family, perhaps for the first time since the initial shutdown in 2020. While The Equinox recognizes the risk, allowing students to visit home and return to campus to round out the semester in-person is equally important.
