Columbia To Welcome Back Students At Full Capacity

Upper West Side NY

28 August, 2021

5:44 PM

Description

Columbia Daily Spectator BY STELLA PAGKAS AUGUST 27, 2021 As students, faculty, and staff fully return to campus for the first time since March 2020, Columbia's COVID-19 policies are guided by a "single approach": the monitorization of risk level. Guidelines for masking, testing, social distancing, travel, and gatherings will be determined by the assessed COVID-19 risk level in New York City and on campus, which the University will monitor throughout the semester. Using metrics including Columbia affiliate vaccination rates, case numbers, hospitalizations, and deaths in the city, the University will determine if the risk level is lower (green), low (yellow), moderate (orange), or higher (red). Under the current risk level, many aspects of campus life will near a pre-pandemic sense of normalcy, though students disagree as to whether this approach is safe. According to the University's metrics, the current risk level is low, or yellow. Under low-risk guidelines, unvaccinated affiliates will undergo weekly, mandatory COVID-19 testing. Random samples of vaccinated affiliates will also be tested each week, and wastewater testing will continue in undergraduate residence halls. In addition to this routine testing, individuals who have not accessed campus since January are required to complete gateway COVID-19 testing. Unvaccinated and partially vaccinated individuals must complete this testing prior to accessing campus, and those residing on campus must quarantine until they receive a negative result. For vaccinated individuals, PCR gateway tests must be completed by Sept. 9. Vaccinated affiliates may access campus while waiting for results. A gateway test is not required for affiliates who accessed campus in the spring or summer, a policy that some students find worrying. "Columbia's exception to gateway testing in which if you've taken a gateway test since January of this year you don't have to take one upon arriving to campus is a cause for concern … along with the removal of mandated weekly testing [for vaccinated individuals]," Sabin Alam, CC '24, said. "Just because someone tested negative for COVID in January does not mean they can't test positive now." At the current risk level, both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals will be required to wear masks indoors on campus. Outdoors, only unvaccinated individuals must wear masks, and social distancing is not required. The University has established capacity thresholds for administrative, social, and extracurricular gatherings on campus, both indoors and outdoors. However, Columbia is not limiting the capacity of academic gatherings under the yellow guidelines; in-person classes will be meeting at full for the first time in over a year. While many students welcome this return to normalcy, some hope that alternative options will continue to be available. "Due to my fairly small major and concentration, I know that my classes are going to be small and therefore I feel comfortable with in-person classes as long as masks are required," Savannah Ward, CC '22, said. "For larger, lecture-style classes, I would probably prefer a hybrid or virtual option due to COVID concerns." For Sabin, in-person classes are essential after a year of strictly virtual learning. However, he added, "there has to be a balance between moving forward and keeping the community safe." On the other hand, though the fall semester testing program mandates fewer tests for vaccinated individuals than the testing program last spring and summer, some students still feel that it is excessive. "The testing is just too much, and I think it's just gonna cause a lot of stress for a lot of people [who are] trying to adjust to a new environment," Nischal Chennuru, SEAS '25, said. L ike classrooms, residence halls will be open at pre-pandemic capacity, and many students will once again be living in shared rooms. Additionally, Columbia College and School of Engineering and Applied Science resident students will be able to swipe into any undergraduate residence hall, and Barnard, School of General Studies, and commuter students may be signed in by a Columbia resident host, beginning Sept. 9. Non-affiliate guests will not be permitted in the residence halls. According to Columbia's current travel policy, all international, University-related undergraduate travel, including study abroad, has been suspended this semester. Students are strongly encouraged to postpone personal international travel and Columbia-related domestic travel to states with a high number of COVID-19 cases. If COVID-19 statistics in the city and on campus get worse, an orange or red risk level would be instituted, implementing increased restrictions and potentially hybrid or virtual instruction. However, at present, the risk remains low. It appears that—for the most part—the Columbia community will be able to realize University President Lee Bollinger's goal: to return to "normal University life" in September and to make this fall our homecoming. Staff writer Stella Pagkas can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @stellapagkas. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.