USD has been inconsistent and irresponsible with housing its students
A student’s perspective on living on campus amidst the COVID-19 pandemic
Tanner Claudio/Photo Editor
This semester has rapidly come and gone. No matter where you were physically located, the remote learning model has taken a toll on us all. However, the students that were allowed to return to USD’s beautiful campus have experienced vast inconsistencies from USD’s Residential Life, compared to the past three years I have lived on campus. It has become clear to me that the USD administration has become negligent to the needs and wellbeing of the students that were originally granted housing in August by allowing other students to return to campus. Further, the school has been irresponsible in enforcing their own policies upon students who are allowed to live off-campus under the USD housing contract. There have been drastic reductions in communication to students of constantly changing policies of the school’s regulations.
On Aug. 15, I was allowed to move into on-campus housing at the University of San Diego due to my affiliation with ROTC. Exactly one week before I was to move in, I received a message from Residential Life notifying me that I was approved to live on campus on Aug. 8. This is just one of many examples of Residential Life’s lackluster communication with students that were provided on-campus housing.
A very limited number of students were allowed to move into the Alcalá Vistas in a single occupancy model in each room to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. At the time, there were approximately 200 students living on campus that the school and residential life deemed to have an “institutional need.” The initial weeks on campus were very quiet, reminiscent of living in a ghost town. The vibrant students that usually brought campus to life were evidently missing from the campus. It was a very calm place, isolated from the ever-chaotic world surrounding the USD domain. The limited number of students acted responsibly by wearing masks when directed, eating outdoors and not congregating in public areas in large groups. We obeyed the rules because we knew that our peaceful days would abruptly end if any spike of the coronavirus occurred.
In terms of mitigating circumstances, the school seemed to have everything under control. There was signage notifying students and faculty to continue to wear their masks in public, frequently use hand sanitizer, and wash hands with soap and water. In addition, there were plastic shields that protect campus employees at cash registers and stickers on the floor to ensure social distancing policies were followed. Pavilion Dining and Tu Mercado are the only available campus dining facilities for students to utilize for food. During meal time, students were only allowed to eat outdoors, but that rule would later change as the County of San Diego changed their county orders due to a decrease in COVID-19 case rates.
Only 13 days after I moved in, USD President James T. Harris III, DEd, announced a “Limited Return to Campus” due to San Diego County’s status in being removed from the California watch list. This new plan was to essentially accommodate for a large population of students to return to on-campus housing, a clear deviation from the initial “institutional need” requirement. Harris’s announcement also included that all students who would be moving into the residential buildings must be tested for COVID-19, and flu vaccines were strongly recommended. This policy later mandated COVID-19 testing for all campus residents and faculty every two weeks.
The school even asked those who were already living on campus, in addition to those moving in, to agree to a housing addendum to the original USD housing contract, or they would not be allowed to remain on campus. Within the addendum contained a number of new policies that were to be enforced among all residents who had a USD housing contract, including “contact tracing, self-isolation, restrictions on group gatherings, travel and/or other institutional health guidelines or directives on or off -campus” among other regulations.
Close to 500 students moved into on-campus housing during Sept. 18-20. I had a feeling that many students that were returning would not follow the school’s regulations or recommendations to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. It did not take long before many of them gathered in large groups at the SLP or within the courtyards of The Vistas. Those that were initially brought to campus under a “institutional need” requirement were obedient of the campus policies that were enforced. The fear of being sent home or disciplined was enough to ensure that campus regulations were being abided. However, the delayed limited return to campus was surely going to bring students that would not abide by the same regulations given there was no “institutional need” requisite for some of these students.
I believe a more responsible decision to handle this situation would have been a slower phasing of students returning to campus. Each weekend the school could have allowed smaller groups of students to return to campus over multiple weekends rather than one mass move-in weekend. I understand that the school is hurting financially, but one must draw the line between fiscal necessity and student wellbeing.
The primary issue that I have noticed in my time on campus is a great disparity in the rules and regulations that the school administration would like to see enforced. The rules that I am forced to abide by are simply not the same for students living in university housing in Loma Palisades or Pacific Ridge. Further, it is simply unfair to the students living on campus who try to follow the established rules, while they know their off-campus counterparts are not doing the same.
While I adjusted to my new home in the Alcala Vistas, the university offered housing to students in Pacific Ridge Apartments and Loma Palisades under a master lease that the school has negotiated. This is not a new policy, but has become increasingly popular among juniors and seniors that want to maintain their housing contract with USD. During this semester, the university and Residential Life has been “enforcing” regulations among on-campus and off-campus housing alike, such as no outside guests, including those that live on your floor.
Anyone who is living under the USD housing contract must have a Resident Assistant, or RA for short, whether or not you live on campus. The problem is that RAs live on campus and still conduct “rounds” by walking through the resident halls during the evenings on the weekends. However, students in Loma Palisades and Pacific Ridge have no such enforcement to prevent large group gatherings in apartments. It is pretty clear to students that the school has little to no jurisdiction in the Loma Palisades and Pacific Ridge apartments. This is yet another example of the university’s irresponsible actions in terms of housing this semester.
At Pavilion Dining there are now “campus ambassadors” who largely resemble elementary school lunch hall monitors to ensure that each student is seated at their own table away from others. On numerous occasions I have seen students gather at the SLP or in the courtyards of The Vistas in groups of thirty or more, often not wearing masks or social distancing unless directed by a “campus ambassador.” Just this past week, a campus ambassador notified me and my friends who routinely eat together that we were no longer allowed to move furniture due to a county of San Diego order, and that “they just changed the rules on us, too.” The school administration sends countless emails on “student wellness” and “being together in a virtual environment,” but cannot even notify on-campus students of updated regulations or rules.
Another instance that demonstrated a rapid change in housing regulations without notification occurred when residential life debuted their policies on the “no outside guests” rule. The original rule that we were informed of by our RAs when we initially moved to campus was that we could visit other students who lived in our same residence hall, and on the same floor. However, one September evening when my three friends gathered in one of the apartments in The Vistas to watch a sporting event, two RAs knocked on the door and informed us that the guest policy had changed and that we were no longer allowed to be in anyone’s rooms other than our own. We were asked to leave the room since we did not live there and our student ID numbers were taken down.
That following Monday, all residents on campus received a mass email that communicated the shift in guest policy between on-campus residents, but were never notified prior to the occurrence. The school needs to do a better job of informing students, especially those that are living on campus of updated rules and regulations that we must abide by. A weekly or daily update on changing policies would clear up any confusion in the enforcing of new rules. I do not understand how Residential Life or the school administration is to prevent people that live 10 feet away from one another from visiting their neighbors across the hall.
As of Nov. 9, the school has 157 confirmed cases with 22 “probable” cases since surveying began on Aug. 16. Frankly, I am genuinely surprised that the USD community has not reported higher cases of students contracting the novel coronavirus.
In the season of fall and Thanksgiving, I would like to extend my most gracious gratitude to those that continue to make our on-campus community one that is habitable. Faculty and staff that have returned to USD’s campus work diligently to keep USD one of the most beautiful campuses in the country. I am thankful for all that keep our campus clean, safe, and reminiscent of times before a global pandemic. As the holiday season is upon us, we must remember that our actions now may greatly impact the health and wellbeing of our loved ones as students return home.
The views expressed in the editorial and op-ed sections are not necessarily those of The USD Vista staff, the University of San Diego, or its student body.
