As the second week of the fall semester draws to a close, student adherence to the Community Compact has proven haphazard at best. Emory’s COVID-19 incidence is a testament to that failure; since Aug. 1, 39 community members have tested positive. Students have congregated in massive numbers, often indoors — multiple resident advisors (RA) have reported first-years packed into dorm rooms without face coverings or proper social distancing. To preserve this imperfect semester, we call upon all on-campus members of the Emory community to heed the public health measures to which they committed.
A false sense of security prevails at Emory, and we will all pay dearly if nothing changes. As first-year Nicholas Chang (24C) wrote in an email, “a combination of negative COVID-19 tests and mask wearing have created an atmosphere where not everyone respects distancing protocols.”
That anyone was able to return to campus at all is a wonder given the COVID-19 surge that has ravaged Georgia health care systems. Before their return, all on-campus Emory community members signed the Emory Community Compact, in which they agreed to social distance “whenever possible” and wear masks on campus. Penalties for violating those guidelines are minor, however, rarely exceeding simple conduct violations that scarcely amount to deterrence. Administrators must stiffen penalties and lower their tolerance for repeat violations. A gathering of more than 30 students in a first-year dorm room warrants more than a simple warning from an RA, and habitually failing to wear a mask deserves more than mere censure.
Universities nationwide, once warily confident in their ability to safely resume in-person classes, have already begun to drastically revise or reverse their plans, and evidence suggests that student irresponsibility deserves significant blame. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill could not sustain residential learning for even one week: administrators pulled the plug after 177 cases arose from four separate clusters within seven days. Due in large part to several Greek life-affiliated parties and widespread failure to practice social distancing and wear masks, UNC-Chapel Hill students’ test positivity rate jumped from 2.8% to 13.6% between their first and last days of in-person classes. The University of Notre Dame (Ind.) and Michigan State University shut down in similarly rapid fashion, and the Georgia Institute of Technology, located just a shuttle ride away from Emory’s main campus, seems destined to follow suit if students do not take greater responsibility for the safety of their campus. If we aren’t careful, Emory could be next.
Georgia’s astronomically high incidence rate means that leaving campus is itself a danger not merely to us as individuals but also to Emory’s whole residential community. One student bringing the virus back from a restaurant in Midtown Atlanta could be enough to spark an on-campus outbreak; refraining from leaving Emory whenever possible would mitigate, if not eliminate, that risk. Don’t be the one person responsible for sending everyone home.
Emory’s Community Compact may seem callously proscriptive and hopelessly idealistic, but stemming the tide of the pandemic and saving lives is our common duty and so warrants drastic personal action. To the University’s credit, they have made students’ role in that strategy extraordinarily simple. Wear a mask — it keeps your friends safe. Stay six feet apart from others whenever possible — it keeps you safe. Don’t leave campus unless absolutely necessary — it keeps your community safe.
If first-years are unwilling to adhere to and self-enforce the Community Compact for their own safety, they must do so for all the upperclassmen hoping to return to campus next semester.
“First-years need to realize that most seniors weren’t allowed back, and this is their last year,” Sophomore Advisor Celline Kim (23C) said. “If you have the huge privilege of being able to return to campus, the least you should be doing is following the rules.”
Most first-years lost much of their senior year of high school and, in many cases, their graduations, to the pandemic. Thousands of hours of hard work went uncelebrated, millions of yearbooks were left barren and countless memories were never made. Students were devastated. If their irresponsibility prevents Emory seniors from returning to campus for their last semester of college and attending their graduation, they will have willfully inflicted that same pain on thousands of their peers. The only difference is that first-years, as high school students, were still able to look ahead to their next senior year, their next graduation at Emory. For many Emory seniors, there will be no next graduation or final semester. This is it.
We recognize that the current first-year experience is far from ideal. Songfest, Rec the Night, pre-orientation programs and Homecoming have all been called off, postponed or transitioned into a virtual format. The pandemic has precluded the spontaneous friendships ordinarily forged during the fleeting moments before and after classes, in residence halls at 3 a.m. or at the couches in the Dobbs Common Table. We understand that first-years are frustrated with the current situation, and we empathize with their pain at losing so many key experiences.
Yet the stunted semester we have is the best of a litany of unsustainable options tried at other universities. If you are a first-year, to buck the guidelines delineated in the Community Compact is to risk not merely your ability to live on campus but also what little semblance of a freshman experience you do have left. If administrators determine the situation on campus to be untenable, almost all of us will have to leave, and the chances of a near-normal spring semester will vanish.
Any student forced to move out in March will tell you that a college education at home is utterly unworthy of the name. It’s sitting alone in a room with your laptop for eight hours each day, missing out on what could have been the most memorable time of your life. Don’t bring that on yourself, and don’t bring it on the rest of us. You don't have the right.
The above editorial represents the majority opinion of the Wheel’s Editorial Board. The Editorial Board is composed of Brammhi Balarajan, Zach Ball, Jake Busch, Meredith McKelvey and Ben Thomas.
