Looking Back at Fall 2020: The Successes, Shortcomings & Changes to Come
Five months after the Poughkeepsie campus shut down in the spring of 2020, students returned in August to greet a semester like no other –– with the explicit reminder from President Dennis J. Murray that this was theirs to lose.
The following 15 weeks brought two campus-wide pauses, over 100 interim suspensions for COVID-19-related violations, five temporary dorm quarantines and approximately 175 positive COVID-19 cases. The pandemic dramatically altered virtually every aspect of the college’s operations this fall. Faculty and staff became contact tracers, and adirondack chairs on the green became classrooms. Thousands of signs reminded passersby to wear a mask and stay six feet apart.
The usual hallmarks of the fall semester –– the controlled chaos of move-in day, the cheers at sports games, the carols under the tree –– disappeared. But despite the pandemic’s undeniable influence, the on-campus semester concluded as scheduled on Nov. 24.
The Circle spoke with students, faculty, staff and President Murray to discover what worked and what did not, and how the spring semester may reflect takeaways from the fall.
Testing Worked, and Will Be Increased
Marist aims to test each community member once every 14 days, said Dr. Alicia Slater, dean of the School of Science.
Prior to arrival on campus in the fall, each student submitted a PCR COVID-19 test, which ultimately detected 37 positive cases. Dr. Alicia Slater, dean of the School of Science, said, “More institutions are implementing this protocol in the spring after seeing its success at colleges like Marist.” Pre-arrival testing will be required again this semester, as will a mandatory 10-day quarantine for students coming from non-contiguous states and abroad.
Emma Kittay ‘22 of California completed the 14-day quarantine in Conklin Hall before the fall semester, but felt frustrated seeing posts from students in New York and surrounding states breaking quarantine before the start of the semester. “I don’t want to get anyone sick. That is my worst fear, so I’m going to do whatever I can to keep everybody safe, but that means you have to make sure all your students are doing that, because it’s not fair,” Kittay said.
In the fall, one of the most effective means of limiting spread on campus was surveillance testing, which included representative PCR testing of a portion of the campus community each week. For the spring, surveillance testing is planned to increase, Slater said, with a goal of testing all members of the Marist community once every 14 days.
As for vaccinations, Murray said that students will not likely have access to a vaccine during the semester: “Although throughout the course of the semester we'll see more people getting vaccinated in the greater Dutchess County community, it appears now that young adults, particularly like our students, are not going to be high on the list … we're going to go through medical workers and first responders, senior groups, etcetera.”
Slater lauded the success of the Marist's internal contact tracing team, which was "invaluable in limiting spread on campus, especially during micro-outbreaks.” Director of Safety and Security John Blaisdell said the process will be streamlined to be more “effective and efficient and student-friendly” next semester.
The contact tracing team comprises employees across campus, including Security and Athletics staff as well as faculty. All contact tracers are certified through a course from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
For this spring, Murray indicated a greater separation between contact tracing and discipline to assist in tracking down positive cases: “Even if they broke the rule, tell us you broke the rule so we can contact trace and prevent the spread even better than we did last year,” Murray said.
Socialization Proved Difficult –– And Often Dangerous.
The spring may provide more opportunities for activities, but larger student gatherings remain a formidable threat to campus safety.
Zoom calls and greetings from a six-foot distance presented a challenging social environment for students looking to forge new connections, and particularly for freshmen acclimating to college life for the first time. Meeting up in a COVID-safe way took the shape of spike ball games after hours at Tenney Stadium and picnics on the Marist green, which Freshman Class President Caleb Davis ‘24 said reflected the resilience of the freshmen.
That said, they want more.
“A lot of freshmen are kind of disappointed about this policy where freshmen aren't allowed to visit other freshman dorms,” Davis said. “Although they've been able to make friends among their dorm-mates in the dorms, they haven't been able to meet people from other dorms and be able to build that strong class identity that I was hoping for.” Chloe Kangarlu ‘22, a commuter, echoed the difficulties of social life, saying the policies dividing commuters and residents, while not inherently bad, made it “so hard for the commuters to get to know anyone.”
Blaisdell said that he met with Vice President of Student Affairs Deborah DiCaprio, Director of Student Conduct Matthew McMahon and the Resident Assistants (RAs) on campus to hold listening sessions, discussing what worked and what did not. While the specific outcomes from those sessions have not yet been disclosed, Blaisdell foreshadowed upcoming changes in “behavioral expectations” for students.
McMahon said some topics on the table included potentially condoning visitations between residence halls and clarifying occupancy limits within rooms and common areas.
“Certainly some things weren't working that well, and we certainly don't want to set students up for failure,” Blaisdell said. “We want to make sure that they still have a college experience that is meaningful, but we have to make sure that it’s safe.”
Clubs, historically a popular social outlet for students with common interests, adjusted and limited many of their usual activities, trading interactive events for virtual icebreakers. Student Body President Roda Mohamed ‘21 commended flexibility and creativity of club leaders, and said the Student Government Association (SGA) is looking to centralize information about club events for students in the spring.
But certain clubs have felt the brunt of the COVID-19 restrictions. Marist Femme, accustomed to having discussions on personal and sensitive topics behind closed doors, now attempts to emulate that intimate circle through virtual means. The Marist College HuMarists, an improv and comedy group on campus, needed to abandon many of their usual exercises.
With respiratory droplets considered the primary mode of transmission of the virus, singing on campus became all but obsolete.
“It’s a joke that they allow like athletics or us to go to class and other things that are super-spreaders, like allowing the gyms to be open and not allowing the music students to meet, at least outside,” Kittay said.
Encouraging virtual event attendance remains a challenge, Senior Class President Natalie Ford ‘21 said. Before the pandemic, students could drop by or wander in and out of events on campus. Now, students must sign up for time slots for in-person activities, or add another hour of Zoom to their agenda.
The spring semester plans shared with the college community alluded to the potential for more activities in the upcoming semester. “We are in the process of reviewing potential activities for the spring, which may include those that were not feasible during the Fall semester,” Executive Vice President Geoffrey Brackett told the Circle. “Vice President DiCaprio and her capable Student Affairs team are actively working on those plans.”
In a message to the student body, DiCaprio said a majority of the positive cases identified stemmed from violations of the college’s COVID-19 guidelines. The first pause in October was directly linked to an off-campus gathering.
“I think the faculty, the staff and students did wonderful in terms of social distancing, mask wearing, cleanliness, hygiene, all of that, Monday through Friday, 8 to 5. And then I think the problems that we face, where we ended up getting in infectious situations, generally revolved around behavior with students that was happening after hours and off campus,” Blaisdell said.
“It has to improve coming into the spring, whether it be mask wearing, or gatherings off campus … there has to be a higher level of individual accountability.”
Reporting COVID Violations Felt Fruitless, Students Say.
The Office of Student Conduct faced a high volume of cases this fall.
Members of the Marist community were encouraged to report violations of the COVID-19 guidelines and Code of Student Conduct. Both Marist Security and the Office of Student Conduct included incident report tabs on their respective websites, where individuals could anonymously report violations. A hotline –– (845) 575-MASK –– was implemented, as well.
McMahon said reports from the Marist community increased approximately 450%. Over 100 students incurred interim suspensions this fall due to COVID-19 violations, prohibiting them from coming to campus or attending classes until the disciplinary process had been conducted. Deferred suspensions –– high-level sanctions –– had been used relatively infrequently in the past and increased drastically this fall, McMahon said.
These sanctions occurred when students violated the Code of Conduct and put others at risk. In early October, students were informed of an addendum to the Code of Student Conduct, which aimed to address the high volume of cases more efficiently by only allowing appeals for high-level sanctions.
“Our overall goal is to educate students and help correct behavior and to try and work with them and help them get through the situation, but also understanding that they have a responsibility to look out for one another, and their behaviors impact others,” McMahon said.
Students expressed mixed feedback regarding COVID-19 violation reports. One student said they knew a friend’s report led to suspensions of students at an off-campus residence; others said their reports fell on deaf ears.
“I reported photos that I saw students posted on Facebook out at the bars –– before Mahoneys was closed for nightlife, I saw several people there and guidelines were not enforced –– and crowded parties. Nothing came of it,” one anonymous senior said. “I also reported people who I knew that lived on campus who were going to house parties with at least 10-15 people. The online reports that I put in, I did not receive any follow up.”
In one specific case, two seniors –– who requested to remain anonymous –– reported a purported off-campus party a month into the semester. A security guard told the student that it sounded like they were “feeling left out.” One of the seniors reached out to a trusted professor, who personally connected them with the Office of Safety and Security. They were assured the guard was spoken to about the situation.
One anonymous RA told the Circle that “even documenting incidents felt inefficient. Most people didn’t get spoken to by Student Conduct and it just made residents resent RAs.”
McMahon said that while the Office of Student Conduct received copious reports, many lacked sufficient details to investigate further; for instance, students would report an off-campus party, but not the whereabouts, the number of students in attendance, or any identifying information about the student violators. But on the whole, McMahon said the reports helped his office understand the pattern of behavior on and off campus and conveyed many students’ vested interest in campus safety.
Early in the semester, an account appeared on Instagram posting photos of students appearing in violation of COVID-19 policies on campus; the account has since been deleted. Mohamed felt this method of exposing students publicly was inefficient; rather, she hopes student leaders will be instrumental in encouraging peers to follow the rules in the spring.
“It's crucial to have a student leader that reminds students, ‘Okay, please remember to wear your mask and social distance.’ And I think the guidelines that the school promoted and put forward were excellent in essence. And I think majority students … really want to be on campus, and they want to have that experience in person,” Mohamed said.
But being that person to speak up comes with its own set of challenges, as Sophia Lopukhin ‘23 attested: “ I’d ask people to put their masks on and be respectful of others if I saw them walking around without them. I knew it was helping the greater good, but at times I felt like my one out-of-5,000 opinion was a little insignificant.”
Sanitization Will Focus More on High-Touch Areas in the Spring
Cleaning every classroom between each class session was deemed “overkill,” Slater said, rendering Saturday classes unnecessary.
Leading up to the fall semester, Marist boasted its rigorous cleaning regimen, sanitizing classrooms in between each session. This meant classes would only last an hour rather than 75 minutes, and that time would be made up during Saturday classes.
As more evidence about transmission of COVID-19 became available, Slater said surfaces were found to not be a major contributor to the spread. Thus, this semester, time and resources for surface cleaning will be focused more on high-touch areas –– elevator buttons, stair rails, doorknobs, etc. –– and classrooms will be cleaned three times a day rather than at every change over. Slater added that disinfectant materials will be placed in classrooms for students and faculty to clean their area as they see fit.
“You can imagine what a heavy lift it is to thoroughly clean all those classrooms at every change over. And listen, we would have done it if we thought it was a significant contributor to keeping cases low on campus … but there just wasn't any evidence for it,” Slater said.
With the change in cleaning practices, class periods have been restored to their 75-minute length, thus eliminating the need for Saturday classes –– which were an unpopular addition to the fall academic calendar.
In November, the Student Academic Council (SAC), a board under the SGA, conducted a survey of the Marist community and found that approximately “97% of students voted to not have Saturday classes out of a total of 534 respondents.” Complaints of “burnout” repeated from respondents, and 81% reported higher stress levels this semester compared to prior semesters.
The SAC presented these findings to the Academic Affairs Committee, the Faculty Affairs Committee and the Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dean Thomas Wermuth. Slater said the mental health component factored into the discussion to remove Saturday classes, but the data on cleanliness ultimately closed the decision.
With a Higher Infection Rate This Spring, The Stakes Are High.
Lessons learned from the fall, and adjusting to the spring’s new challenges, will determine the success of the upcoming semester.
Looking down the barrel at the spring semester, challenges and uncertainty loom. As of now, the date for Commencement in May remains “to be determined,” as does the promised graduation for the Class of 2020.
COVID-19 cases worldwide have surpassed 100 million, and the U.S. accounted for over a quarter of those cases. The statistics in New York State and even more locally in Dutchess County are daunting: before the fall 2020 semester, the positivity rate in New York State rested below 1% for 20 straight days; as of Jan, 24, the positivity rate in the state was about 5%, and Dutchess County has been listed at an extremely high risk level.
In order for the college to avoid campus pauses this spring, Slater said “we, as a community, are going to have to outperform the surrounding community” and maintain a “lower positivity rate than those currently in Dutchess County and New York State.”
The stakes are high, and lessons learned in the fall semester will prove critical to the college’s success this spring.
Multiple departments and organizations on campus adjusted their operations to meet the fall’s challenges: music students practiced in cabins constructed behind the Murray Student Center. SGA created a representative position for students living in Conklin Hall, and a COVID-19 subcommittee is currently discussing sustainability efforts to recycle takeout boxes and bags from on-campus eateries. Davis and his fellow freshman representatives hope to turn the dining tent behind the Student Center into an after-hours location for safe socializing.
With increased testing and more effective contact tracing, bolstered by the strength and resilience shown by the Marist community this fall, Murray said he feels confident heading into the spring.
“You can be a Monday morning quarterback and point out how with new information or new knowledge how you might have done differently. But overall, I think all the members of the community here did an excellent job, and we've learned from our past experiences, and I think we're going to do a better job in the spring semester.”