Since Cal State Long Beach officials first announced on Saturday that five students had been infected at off-campus gatherings, the number of related cases has jumped to at least 31, which includes 23 students.
The outbreak has forced a drastic shift in life on the campus, which was already far from normal, according to students still there. About 328 students have been living on campus and 206 of them have opted to stay in the dorms to wait out their quarantine, according to CSULB. Those who tested negative and wanted to go home to quarantine were allowed to leave.
For those left on campus, the few freedoms they had have mostly evaporated.
“I try to keep everything in context, there are people in worse situations,” said one student, a junior named Avery. “I just want to do my part to limit the transfer. But the worst part is … it’s lonely in here.”
Students interviewed for this article asked to be identified by only their first names because they were nervous about speaking candidly about their university and fellow students.
Prior to the outbreak, all students had been told to socially distance, wear masks and not congregate, university spokeswoman Lauren Williams said. The dorms had special signage posted prohibiting any congregation in common spaces; for shared dorm bathrooms, students placed a sign outside when it was in use; students picked up their food from the cafeteria and ate it outside or in their rooms; and socializing was limited to no more than seven people with masks staying 6-feet apart.
Now, even that physically distanced human contact has dried up.
“Occasionally I’ll see people picking up their food and its weird because it’s the only social interaction I’ve had,” Avery said.
Before, students were able to eat their food at the tables outside and see other humans, but now they must put their food requests in a spreadsheet and pick up their food from those same tables. Students who had a smaller meal plan and relied on getting groceries themselves are being provided with all three meals on weekdays and brunch and dinner on weekends, Williams said.
Laundry is also now done by signing up for a two-hour time slot, Avery said, which is better than at the start of quarantine when a Resident Advisor told her she would have to wash her clothes in the bathroom if she immediately needed something cleaned.
Avery said she relies heavily on FaceTime to stay in touch with her family and boyfriend. Her brother is staying at a dorm at UCLA and they compare and contrast how their respective schools are handling the pandemic, she said.
It surprised her when CSULB didn’t require students to get tested for the virus before moving into the dorms and UCLA did. Williams said the decision was made in consultation with public health officials and students are required to take a daily health survey. She also noted that the dorms were at 12% capacity of what they usually are.
Now, the university is working on a plan for monitoring residential students with periodic testing, “to help monitor their health as a part of our overall efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” Williams said.
The students in the dorms are primarily there because they had few options, faced homelessness or needed to access the open lab classes on campus.
Some students are frustrated that they followed the rules and they’re suffering the consequences for decisions made by their dorm-mates.
“It was really irritating to get that email [about the quarantine] and realize that other people weren’t taking precautions,” Zack, a senior, said. He decided to go to his family’s home four hours away to wait out the quarantine, but he described the current dorm life as consisting of two types of people: those who have to be there and follow the rules and those who feel they need to socialize and party.
“It’s like the most annoying part of it,” Avery echoed. “It’s annoying that five kids did this—five kids. The people that are living on campus are living here because it’s a necessity.”
October 04, 2020 at 02:51AM
https://lbpost.com/news/delivered-meals-laundry-sign-ups-and-loneliness-life-under-quarantine-at-csulb
Delivered meals, laundry sign-ups and loneliness: Life under quarantine at CSULB - Long Beach Post
https://news.google.com/search?q=Laundry&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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