CHLOE KOWALYK
News Editor
Many of SUNY Fredonia students’ experiences in on-campus quarantine have been anything but positive.
Several students who test positive for COVID-19 find themselves quarantining on campus in Hendrix Hall, the college’s designated quarantine building. Several of these students choose to quarantine on campus rather than at home to avoid infecting family members, or live too far away to travel home from the college. One such student is Alex Erwin, a junior double majoring in audio/radio production and video production with a minor in accounting. Erwin lives almost eight hours away from Fredonia, and after being exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19 in the spring 2021 semester, saw quarantining on campus as his best option.
When asked about his on-campus quarantine experience, Erwin said “it was lonely and boring and quite cold; the heater didn’t work for the first couple of days.” Another student, who chose to remain anonymous, had a similar experience during on-campus quarantine, and described their spring 2021 experience as being “incredibly sick and miserable.” Several other students who had to quarantine on campus brought their experiences to their professors, including Dr. Shannon McRae, an English professor. Stephen Wright, an English adolescent education major, is a student of McRae, and brought his concerns about his quarantine experience from late August to early September 2021 forward.
“I always say my experience in quarantine at my school [can be compared] to jail. I’ve never been, but this was the worst place for me to recover,” Wright said. He also had a similar experience with a lack of heat as Erwin, describing his nights as “cold.” Erwin, Wright and the student who wished to remain anonymous brought up various concerns regarding their on-campus quarantine experiences.
In an email reaching out to our Leader staff about quarantine issues, McRae wrote, “Our students have been reporting the same issues you’re describing [in reference to previous FSA pieces published in The Leader regarding poor food quality]: bad food, cold food — sometimes apparently no food, one bottle of water a day unless they fill out a form to ask for it. One student reported being given a single unlabeled pill for a fever.” “The conditions — poor food and isolation — are exactly the opposite of what sick people should be experiencing,” she continued.
Food Service
Students quarantining in Hendrix Hall are not allowed to leave the building, or even the suite they are being quarantined in. Because of this, students rely on FSA to deliver their meals to them from campus dining halls. Unfortunately, all three students have had a negative experience regarding food service.
“The food often arrived cold and soggy. Food delivery needs to be revamped extensively,” said Erwin. The student wishing to remain anonymous explained that the nutrition was well-balanced and a fruit and vegetable was given with every meal. However, the student further explained that they “did not feel properly fed.” “I was given expired food nearly everyday and I ended up instacarting more food than I was eating from campus,” they said.
Wright said, “I was properly fed for the most part, except for the last day I was not notified I was being released, so I did not receive lunch or dinner that day … I was really hungry.”
After hearing the experiences of her students, McRae said, “I’m really worried about this because students who are having this kind of time or even if this is the perception that students aren’t being properly fed, then they go into quarantine, I feel terrible. And people don’t bring them food and water when they do, it’s like one bottle of water a day, which is not enough especially for someone who’s sick. That’s not going to help them get any better.”
Proper Care
The students also proposed various issues regarding their recovery. Erwin said, “I wouldn’t say I was taken care of. I was left to my own devices for 10 days and told if anything serious came up to call.” He further explained that “no measures” were taken to ensure his recovery, and that he “wasn’t checked on often, maybe twice during the entire period.”
Wright explained that he was checked on by the Student Health Center for the first day, and then by FSA as an employee brought him his food. He said FSA asked him if he was doing okay and if he needed anything. The student who wished to remain anonymous said, “I received a daily phone call from LoGrasso, but they only asked about my physical symptoms and didn’t seem to care about my mental health.” They continued, “I emailed four of the counselors during my 14 day quarantine and only got ahold of one for one of the last days.”
Each of the students agreed that more action could have been taken to check on them during their on-campus quarantine.
Mental Health
All three students had concerns regarding not just their physical health, but their mental health as well. The anonymous student said “I felt as though nobody was there to help me, and I was scared I wouldn’t make it through with how sick I was.”
Erwin said he “felt alone and isolated and upset. Both the environment and the way I was talked to at the beginning of the process of quarantine made me feel I was truly alone for the next 10 days and that I was a number.”
Wright had a similar experience, and said in an email interview, “They [the Student Health Center] told me to pack. They said I had 10 minutes to get whatever I needed. That was only enough time to get my suitcase, throw clothes and my toiletries [in], grab my pillows and blanket and like that I was off to Hendrix.”
Wright also explained that the first thing he did after he got out of quarantine was book an appointment at the Counseling Center in LoGrasso Hall to speak with a counselor about his feelings of loneliness, isolation and depression.
Solutions
The students outlined various solutions they felt would better help students in similar situations as them. The anonymous student focused on the mental health aspect, suggesting that a counselor could come in to check on the students in quarantine.
Erwin felt similarly, and said that he wished for “more contact with the outside world, whether it’s conversation or just a more pleasurable environment.” Wright had similar opinions and suggested that care packages could be sent to students with words of encouragement on them. He also wants the Student Health Center to “follow up on students after they are released.” Wright also brought up the idea of providing students with cable and a television in the rooms to help with feelings of boredom.
Other suggestions focused more on the food aspect of the quarantine experience. Wright wished he could have been given an option whether he would eat Willy C’s or Cranston Marché. The anonymous student suggested that FSA provide more meal options instead of only two.
Some quarantined students did bring their concerns regarding food service to the student board members of FSA. One such student board member is Jenna Woods, who said she made the rest of the board aware of these concerns. Woods said that the board “took it back to FSA management to ensure food was warm and reiterated that the menu provided to students includes many food options including vegan.”
After I brought up student concerns regarding on-campus quarantine at the most recent University Senate meeting on Oct. 4, Dr. Heather McEntarfer, an English professor and senator for the University Senate, helped bring my concerns forward to administration.
“We began talking with those professors [who had concerns] and with the Senate president, Dr. Mary Beth Sievens, to figure out the best way to address those concerns as senators.” “We decided, first, that it would make the most sense for students to bring their concerns to their student senators,” McEntarfer said in an email interview.
She also mentioned that the Senate recently learned of a new survey being conducted on students in Hendrix to gauge student experiences in quarantine. “We (the faculty members who have raised these concerns) would like to see the raw data from that survey shared with the Senate president or the Covid Steering Committee, as a way of closing the loop on those concerns that were brought to the Senate,” McEntarfer said. “I think that would help us understand the scope of the problem and figure out any necessary steps to address it.”
In an in-person interview, Sievens said that Jake Steinhoff (jacob.steinhoff@fredonia.edu) is conducting the survey. Steinhoff lives in Hendrix Hall, and serves as the college’s COVID-19 response and support coordinator. “He is the person who is there for students to turn to if they’re experiencing difficulties,” said Sievens.
Sievens also spoke to a faculty FSA board member, and asked him to relay the food concerns to the rest of FSA’s board. “I’m hoping that you know, efforts are being made to improve the food delivered … Otherwise, I think we actually have very good policies and procedures in place to handle and to support students who are in quarantine,” she said. “We just need to make sure that they’re always being followed.”
Regarding mental health, Sievens explained that the campus has tried to make various resources available to students in quarantine, including Zoom appointments for counseling sessions and an online tool right on the Counseling Center website called “My Strength,” which acts as a self-help tool with various workshops to reduce stress and improve mood.
Sievens also suggested that students can also talk to medical centers like LoGrasso Hall, WellNow Urgent Care and Brooks Memorial Hospital. She also recommended the University Police for emergency situations. The University Police can be contacted at (716) 673-3333.
McRae agreed with Sievens, and said “We want you all to be happy and have a good experience. We came here to work for Fredonia because it offered a good experience to people and we want to see that continue. We don’t want students to feel this way.”
Further information regarding policies and resolutions as well as survey results for on-campus quarantine will be included in a follow-up article.