By Mariam Keita ’24
Managing Editor of Web
On Friday, April 22, the Division of Student Life announced in an email to students that the College will once again ask residential students who test positive for COVID-19 to shelter in place within their residence halls starting on April 25.
The decision to reinstate the isolate in place policy comes from an upward trend in positive testing rates over the last few weeks.
According to the email, this policy will affect those students who live alone or are currently rooming with a student who has tested positive for COVID-19 within the past 90 days. Students who reside within three hours of campus and have a private vehicle will be asked to isolate at home.
Alex Moreno ’22 was one of the first student at Mount Holyoke who was asked to isolate in place in their residential hall upon testing positive for COVID-19 when they arrived back on campus for ResLife training during winter break prior to the start of the Spring 2022 semester.
“I tested positive [for COVID-19] literally the day I got to campus,” Moreno said. “I had taken a PCR at home. Because of the delays … the PCR that was supposed to come back in 24 hours took four days.”
Moreno, who works as a residential fellow, was in a Zoom training session for ResLife when they got the alert that they had tested positive. Upon receiving the alert, they immediately sent a text message to their area coordinator in ResLife asking what their next steps should be.
“[My area coordinator was] like, ‘I’ll get back to you. You should call a health center.’” Moreno said.
Upon calling Health Services, Moreno’s phone call was sent to a voicemail box which relayed the message that the center was closed for several days. The voicemail then directed Moreno towards a number to call in case of an emergency.
“I was like, ‘Okay, I feel like I really need to talk. COVID[-19] like, that feels kind of serious.’ So I call them and then … [the person on the emergency line was] like well this isn’t an emergency so call at a different time and then they hung up on me. Yeah, they were just so mean,” Moreno recalled.
Having had yet to hear back from anyone as to what their next steps could or should be, Moreno described feeling uncertain about what to do.
Eventually, Moreno received a call back from a Health Services employee during which they were presented with two options: opt into a quarantine and isolation housing space in one of the apartments on campus, or participate in the pilot launch of a new isolation program.
Since Moreno’s room as a residential fellow contains a private bathroom, they were offered the chance to remain in their room. However, Moreno was given a caveat along with this option — they would be responsible for coordinating having all of their meals delivered to their door, because Dining Services employees were unable to enter residential buildings.
“I chose to stay in my room just because I had also just moved back from Hampshire. I needed to unpack. I needed to be in my room. I couldn’t just leave all my stuff.” Moreno said.
Moreno further explained that they were only asked to isolate in place for about three days, as Health Services was following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines in counting the date that they received the first positive PCR test result as the beginning of their five-day contagion window.