WCU’s administrators stuck to their “script” Monday evening, Aug. 10, at a virtual town hall held by SGA President Dawson Spencer. Over 200 students tuned in to the zoom call with nearly the same amount of questions. The administrators present, including Chancellor Kelli R. Brown, had responses that students described as “confusing,” “reiterations of previous emails” and “didn’t answer anything.”
WCU Chancellor Kelli R. Brown. Image provided by WCU Office of Communications and Public Relations.
Chancellor Brown did make one thing very clear: students will be expected to be responsible for the health and safety of the campus.
This position seems reasonable enough, but many students felt it was a dismissal of responsibility. One student commented in the Q&A section “Do you really believe that college kids are not going to party?” and another asked “How exactly are you supposed to go about telling other kids on campus to social distance?”
Chancellor Brown redirected these concerns by continually returning to statements like “our success is as much dependent on us as it is you.”
Dean of Students, Bashaun Smith, said regarding the student’s speculation of their administrators’ optimism “If it sounds like a pipe dream, it’s because we have the utmost confidence in our students.”
Chancellor Brown also spoke about the reasoning behind not mandating that students be tested before coming to campus.
“It’s not a good thing to test people before coming to campus because negative testing creates a false sense of security,” she said. Additionally, Chancellor Brown was adamant that the situation regarding COVID-19 is improving saying that COVID-19 is very fluid, and today is the smallest number of cases since early June. She continued to explain that Jackson county and the state as a whole has a “good” rate for COVID. To this WCU student, Rebecca Ballard, asked in the Q&A section: “Will people who are coming from out of state from states with very high rates have to quarantine upon arrival? North Carolina and Jackson County rates may be low, but that isn’t to say it’s the case for everywhere else.” And in response Melissa Wargo, WCU Chief of Staff, wrote back “there is no quarantine requirement in Jackson County.”
Another concern that students had was the protocol for testing and quarantining for positive cases. Associate Vice Chancellor for Health & Wellness, Kellie Monteith laid out WCU’s plan for dealing with positive cases on campus. In a nutshell the process is as follows:
- If you are sick or have been exposed to someone who is sick you should call health services
- Contact tracing will be done
- You may be brought in for a test at that point
- They have rapid testing which takes 20 minutes in house. However, it is recommended they also conduct a molecular test to confirm, that currently is taking 2-5 days.
- At this point they will ask you to go home to your family
- If that is not possible you will be quarantined in Madison and have boxed meals delivered to you
- This procedure is only for students living on campus
To sum up WCU’s plan for the semester, bring students to campus and if one contracts the virus send them back to their families in various parts of the country rather than sending all students home healthy. The administrators are so confident in this plan that it appears that they don’t have a different plan if cases do spike. As Vice Chancellor, Sam Miller said, “I think we are all very confident in the preparations we’ve made and have a lot of faith in our students.”
This confidence would explain the conflicting types of answers students have been getting regarding refunds. Miller was able to confirm that students will not be receiving any refunds for fees that provide services to students like athletics, library use and health services should the campus be closed early due to COVID. However, the answers for housing and dinning refunds were more up in the air. Miller seemed doubtful that students would receive any refund like the ones they had in the spring, but ultimately said he did not have the answer. However, SGA president Spencer said in the Q&A section “As of now the University is going to try to refund if they can but they will wait for guidance from the UNC System.” This response is considerably more optimistic than Miller’s which left many students more uncertain than before.
Associate Vice Chancellor for Campus Services, Keith Corzine, admitted that even if students perfectly follow all guidelines the living situation inherently presents its own safety difficulties. He said that the way the buildings are designed make social distancing a challenge, and that he and other administrators are trying to do something on campus that was never meant to be done, keep students away from each other.
Additional resources:
- If you believe you are high risk please click this link: https://www.wcu.edu/operations-procedures/move-in.aspx#highrisk
- To see traffic flow at dining halls click this line: https://www.wcu.edu/operations-procedures/campus-dining.aspx
- For daily updates regarding the on-going COVID situation click this link: https://info.wcu.edu/covidreporting
- For information regarding refunds click this link: https://www.wcu.edu/operations-procedures/fall-billing.aspx
- If you are struggling with maintaining your mental health in these difficult times please click this link: https://www.wcu.edu/experience/health-and-wellness/caps/index.aspx
