T HE F LAT H AT
Vol. 112, Iss. 7 | Tuesday, September 13, 2022
The Weekly Student Newspaper
of The College of William and Mary
flathatnews.com | @theflathat
COVID-19 QUANDARY JUSTIN SHERLOCK / THE FLAT HAT
Changes in case-tracking protocals fosters sense of uncertainty for students on campus AIDAN WHITE // THE FLAT HAT removal of case measurement resources. “Getting rid of contact tracing and case management prevents us from being honest with each other,” Pendaar Pooyan ’24 said. “It creates an environment of secrecy and hiding the truth from other people, and it does not create an environment of trust.” Despite a lack of official communication from the College about the number of active COVID-19 cases on campus, students have noticed a recent uptick in their peers testing positive.
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Getting rid of contact tracing and case management prevents us from being honest with each other. It creates an environment of secrecy and hiding the truth from other people, and it does not create an environment of trust.
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Over two weeks into the new academic year, cases of COVID-19 among students at the College of William and Mary are on the rise. However, neither students nor staff know exactly how many active cases there are on campus due to the university’s new COVID-19 policies. “Cases are being tracked by the Virginia Department of Health,” Dr. David Dafashy, medical director of the Student Health Center (SHC) and member of the university’s Public Health Advisory Team, said in a written statement when asked if the university knows how many active cases of COVID-19 are on campus right now. “Any cases seen through the Student Health Center on campus are required to be reported to VDH.” However, students are not required to report cases to the Student Health Center. Ahead of the fall semester, the College loosened many of its COVID-19 management strategies in an effort to treat the disease as an endemic. “Today, COVID-19 is one illness among many the university will help students and employees manage on a daily basis,” Vice President for Student Affairs Ginger Ambler ’88 Ph.D. ’06 wrote in an email to the community on July 28. On Aug. 5, the College suspended all COVID-19 case management and contact tracing measures. Prior to this semester, students who tested positive for COVID-19 were required to report their cases to the university and would be assigned a case manager who coordinated contact tracing and informed students of isolation requirements. As of this semester, the webpage ReportCOVID.wm.edu, where students could report positive COVID-19 tests, has been removed from the university’s website. The university has also removed the COVID-19 Dashboard, a webpage where members of the community could see regularly updated information about the number of cases on campus. “As we enter a more endemic stage with COVID-19, the SHC continues to recommend ongoing vigilant hygiene measures, and also encourages even minimally symptomatic students to self-test if they are concerned that they may have COVID-19,” Dafashy said of the new approach to manage COVID-19 spread. But some students have been expressing concerns over the
- Pendaar Pooyan '24
Gail Conk ’22 said they first realized cases were on the rise when they and their partner received texts from multiple friends who tested positive over the course of a few days. “That’s when it got alarming and we realized that there could potentially be a pretty bad outbreak on the campus,” Conk said. They added that other university policy changes from the last few months have contributed to their anxiety about the number of cases
on campus. “Getting rid of pre-testing before we returned to campus, that combined with the mask mandate just makes it impossible to feel safe in classrooms and on campus without suspecting or fearing that those around you may be infected and may not even know it themselves,” Conk said. Some students have taken matters into their own hands. On September 7, an Instagram account called William & Mary People’s Covid Dashboard posted an anonymous Google form where students can report positive tests. “We’re a team of frustrated students disappointed with W&M admin’s lack of response to the Covid-19 pandemic, especially their decision to stop updating the Covid Dashboard,” the anonymous account wrote in an introductory post. “Students deserve accurate, up-to-date information on the state of Covid-19 at W&M to better protect ourselves, our peers, and our community.” The account went on to explain that they are planning to use the data from the Google form to post weekly updates on infection and transmission of COVID-19 among students. Student groups have responded to the outbreak by exploring ways to make their meetings more accessible. Conk is a member of the organization Lips, which publishes a mixed-multimedia magazine focused on the experiences of marginalized students. They said that the executive board of Lips chose to cancel their first meeting of the semester because of the rising number of COVID-19 cases on campus. “That’s where we got into a greater conversation about what kind of an organization we want to be during a pandemic like this, and especially at such a privileged institution that really works to make it comfortable for the most privileged among us, those who don’t necessarily see the worst impacts of this virus,” Conk said. “So we decided that we want to start doing more to really make our organization COVID-safe and accessible to everyone, including having a permanent Zoom link for every single one of our weekly meetings.” READ MORE AT FLATHATNEWS.COM
HOUSING
Students express concern, discontent with new $40 lockout fee policy Housing, Residence Life implements changes to on-campus policies after a noticable rise in lockouts HANNAH RAY FLAT HAT NEWS ASSOC.
As students prepared to return to oncampus housing this fall semester, information began to circle of a new $40 fee to receive a temporary key if a student is locked out of their residence hall. The fee will be charged to the resident’s student account each time they are issued a temporary key. The fee comes in the wake of an increased number of lockouts on campus. According to the Director of Housing and Residence Life Harriet Kandell, the 2021-2022 academic year saw a total of 2,268 lockouts. “The number of lockouts has increased by 5%10% each year for the past 3 years. Our staff has had challenges keeping up with this increase, so we considered practices in place at other institutions designed to reduce lockouts,” Kandell wrote in an email statement to The Flat Hat.
INDEX News Opinions Variety Sports News
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News of the fee came as a shock to many students as there had previously been no fees associated with receiving a temporary key in the event of a lockout. Prior to the new policy, there was only a $55 fee to completely replace the lock on a resident’s door in the event of the key not being found. The $40 lockout fee and $55 lock replacement fee are now both eligible to be charged to students. Students first began hearing of the new policy when resident assistants arrived on campus in mid-August for training. Ryan Ferrick ’24 explained that he discovered the fee in the RA Manual and shared its contents. “No individual room key should ever be removed from the key box without being properly documented via StarRez,” the manual reads, “Each lockout will be a $35.00 fee assessed to the student accounts per lockout.” Kandell clarified that the price, which is listed as $35 in the manual, was a typographical error.
Ferrick’s first reaction to the lockout fee was confusion since he assumed it was talking about the lock change fee. After realizing that the lockout fee was meant as a charge for temporary keys, he, like many other RAs, was upset about the decision and protested it during the next meeting with Residence Life. “There were a lot of questions immediately and a lot of people really upset with the decision,” Ferrick said. “I don't think it's a necessary change and I definitely don't think it's a $40 necessary change because even $35 we thought was incredibly steep.” Kandell wrote that the fee was decided based on the administrative time and the cost is for a replacement key or overdue temporary key. The increased volume of temporary key requests inspired the decision to implement the fee. “The fee was based on the administrative time and what we charge for if a key is lost or not returned by the stated deadline,” Kandell wrote
in an email. “At the end of the spring semester, Residence Life replaced over 500 room keys. Key management is taken very seriously for safety and security purposes for students. All fees are assessed annually to consider costs, inflation, etc. According to Ferrick, the process for checking out a temporary key for a resident is the same as last semester, just with the additional $40 fee now attached to it. “It doesn't even happen with us. We don't do anything with it. We fill out the form that we checked them out a key like normal, and it's discharged outside of us,” Ferrick said. As the information reached the wider student body, outrage spread at the new cost associated with being locked out, even temporarily. RAs are warning residents to not get locked out and a petition created by Joey Upadhyay ’23 has accrued nearly 1000 signatures. See HOUSING page 8
Inside Opinions
Inside Variety
Inside Sports
Chris Schneider '24 writes about how accommodation services fails to meet the needs of students on campus with disabilities page 3
New to campus, the College of William and Mary’s Slacklining Club builds a tight-knit community, walks together to new heights page 5
William & Mary offense totals 392 yards, 271 rushing for their first game at Zable Stadium. page 7
Assessing Accomodations
Stretching to New Horizons
Football wins home opener, improves to 2-0