On Sep. 3 Sacred Heart University’s Coronavirus Planning Team sent an email out requiring all students living off-campus in Bridgeport to not come onto campus until further notice.
The email stated the university was making this decision because of the recent spike in positive COVID-19 cases among students who live off-campus in Bridgeport. At the time there were 10 positive cases out of the 2,500 students who live off-campus in Bridgeport. Students who lived in SHU housing in Bridgeport, lived with family in single-family homes (no other SHU students as residents) and faculty or staff who lived in Bridgeport were still permitted to come to campus.
After receiving the email many students felt strongly about not being allowed on campus.
“I felt extremely scared but at the same time not exactly shocked. Coronavirus is something every single student was extremely aware of before coming to school, and everyone knew there was a chance of a shutdown happening,” said junior Kristine Udahl.
Other students worried about not being able to attend important things that require being on campus like their work study programs.
“I started to get extremely overwhelmed with the thought of not being able to pay my bills this month and afford groceries since work study is my biggest financial support during the school year,” said senior Emma Cannetti.
Others who are D1 student athletes were not able to attend their practices.
“Since I was not able to follow my usual schedule which includes working out in the morning with my team at practice, this started to affect my mental health because I was not able to follow a regular routine,” said senior Brianna Costanza.
On Sep. 4 the Coronavirus Planning Team sent out another email to notify students they would be selecting a group of students who live off-campus to be tested for COVD-19 at West Campus over the weekend.
Junior Cory Hutchison was among the 434 students to be randomly selected for Coronavirus testing.
“Since this is the type of world we’re living in and we wanted to get back on campus as soon as possible I understood why SHU was doing the testing,” said Hutchison.
According to Hutchison the testing was really easing and his negative test result came back very quickly.
“I’m definitely glad that SHU took the time to test off-campus students once they made the announcement that we weren’t allowed on campus, so that they could reevaluate everything and make a well informed decision that still keeps everyone safe. I think that if more cases pop up throughout the year, which will happen, then random testing and looking at the numbers this way will help us stay on campus the rest of the semester,” said Hutchison.
For students that lived on campus, many said it was missing the off-campus students.
“It wasn’t the same vibe on campus with all the upperclassmen gone. The campus felt very empty and dull but on a good note the lines at Linda’s and 63s were very short,” said sophomore Madison Mancha.
On Sep 7. Sacred Heart sent out an email allowing off-campus students back onto campus starting the next day because of the low number of positive tests that came from the randomized COVID-19 testing that took place.
Some students are hopeful and say that the short period off-campus students were prohibited from campus may have actually been a wake up call for some.
“I believe that with that first ban being sent out, off campus residents are being extremely more careful and taking matters into their own hands so that we can all have a safe and enjoyable semester together on campus,” said junior Kristine Udahl.
