Due to a recent uptick in the number of coronavirus cases on campus, officials at Bradley University have implemented a two-week quarantine for students and have switched the school to remote learning on a temporary basis.
According to an alert sent out by the school Tuesday, the move to remote learning will go into effect Tuesday evening, and will run through at least Sept. 23.
Students will be required to quarantine in their residence halls, off-campus residences or their Greek houses for the next two weeks, according to the school.
“We did not make this decision lightly,” Bradley University President Steve Standifird said. “We are enacting these measures now so as to increase the likelihood that we can remain on campus throughout the semester as planned.”
Standifird says that the school has seen approximately 50 cases of the virus, with 500 more students already in quarantine before the new rules were put in place, and that number is continuing to rise because of gatherings among students.
“We are seeing large and small gatherings where masks and physical distancing are not observed,” he said. “Many of our positive tests can be traced back to these gatherings.”
News
The decision was reached to help officials identify how much the virus has spread on campus, according to officials.
Some students at the school expressed disappointment that a quarantine was deemed necessary, but said that they understand the decision.
“It’s definitely upsetting,” Alivia Adkins, a junior at the school, said. “I sort of suspected that this would happen eventually. I feel like they did what was right and what they felt was right, and that’s all they can do.”
Adkins is all too familiar with coronavirus, saying that she had the virus over the summer. She hopes that the experience will help students learn about the risks of the virus, and encourage them to be more careful with their actions.
“Just try to be safe, so we can try to make everything (as) back to normal as possible and still enjoy this college life,” she said.
Students will be allowed some exceptions, like going to dining halls or going to work.
The decision will be re-evaluated in coming weeks, according to officials. Officials do say however that if numbers don’t begin to improve that the rest of the semester could be limited to online learning.
