Sacred Heart University knew what the reopening of campus during COVID-19 called for. Many plans and promises were put into place, such as the Pioneer Promise, which aims to protect the SHU community and the surrounding area.
According to Sacred Heart’s website, “The Pioneer Promise asks students, faculty and staff to protect themselves, protect their fellow Pioneers and protect the SHU community as well as our neighboring communities.”
As part of their reopening, Sacred Heart also implemented the SHU-Flex program, which serves to provide students with both remote and on-ground learning.
Despite these procedures and plans, the spike of COVID-19 cases on campus was inevitable.
The Coronavirus Planning Team stated that, as of Sept. 6, “We continue to have zero known cases in University housing.” However, it was a different situation for students living off-campus. According to the COVID-19 Dashboard, as of Sept. 25, there were 95 active cases off-campus.
On Sept. 15, the Coronavirus Planning Team informed the university of two positive cases on the same floor in Merton Hall. As a result, the floor was placed in cautionary quarantine. Some students felt that this was a challenge, especially regarding academics.
“I felt that the quarantine was a setback with my learning because then all my classes were online,” said freshman Michael Tchertchian. “I believe that Sacred Heart is doing everything in their power to protect us students so that we can go back to normal and not be restricted from the virus.”
While Merton Hall was quarantined, SHU Dining provided the students with meals three times a day.
“SHU Dining takes a lot of pride in the services and safety we can provide to the students at Sacred Heart, whether in quarantine, in your dorm, or elsewhere on campus,” said Marketing Director of Chartwells Kayla Hawley.
On Sept. 22, Sacred Heart lifted the cautionary quarantine on Merton Hall.
“During the Merton quarantine, I was one of the first to leave to go to my brother’s apartment,” said Tchertchian. “Quarantining there was much better than being stuck in Merton from what I heard.”
Sacred Heart continues to attempt to bring the best experience possible for their students.
“We appreciate the feedback we have received over the semester from students, parents, and even our social media platforms, and we are always looking for ways to improve and enhance your dining,” said Hawley.
To better find and isolate positive cases of COVID-19 on campus, Sacred Heart randomly tests students every week.
According to the Coronavirus Planning Team, as of Sept. 25, “We have tested nearly 775 full-time undergraduate students, which is 25% of our on-campus residential population. Next week, we will test 1,300, which is 25% of our entire undergraduate population. The week after that, it will be 2,800–more than 50%. We will also be adding faculty and staff to our random testing protocol going forward.”
President Petillo showed gratitude to students by giving them SHU Bookstore gift cards that were donated by SHU alumni.
“The students have been remarkably cooperative, and to show that appreciation, I just took a little tour and stopped some folks and asked them how they were adjusting to this and with them gave them a little token of appreciation. It’s great to see, and hopefully I’ll do some more in the coming weeks,” said Petillo.
