Only a week into the fall semester, 70 students at Mississippi State University have tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus, according to data published Monday on the MSU website.
The university administered 451 tests to students from Aug. 17 to Aug. 22, according to data that will be updated weekly on the site, as well as 87 to employees and 18 to private patients. One employee and two private patients tested positive.
MSU Chief Communications Officer Sid Salter said new cases were to be expected with campus opening to in-person instruction. Campus closed and classes moved online in March when the spread of COVID-19 became a global pandemic.
“Obviously when our students return from varying situations, where they were before they came to campus, and then that’s exacerbated by whatever decisions they make about their social life, then I think anyone would have an expectation that there would be an increase in the numbers,” Salter said.
About 80 students moved out of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, known as Fiji, and the Phi Mu sorority houses on Friday after both chapters saw positive cases. Students had the options of going home or moving into one of the two Starkville hotels MSU rented for the semester to use as quarantine facilities for two weeks.
MSU Vice President of Student Affairs Regina Hyatt said all quarantined students are provided with resources like snacks, beverages and information about quarantine procedures and how to remotely access university library services.
Students receive all their meals in their rooms from MSU Dining, but they are allowed to order food from outside, and usually the food is delivered to the lobby for the desk staff to deliver to the students’ rooms, Hyatt said.
“In some cases, the student might come to the desk to pick up that delivery,” she said.
All students must wear protective face coverings outside their rooms. They are allowed to leave the building on occasion, but the hotel’s only entrance and exit is monitored 24/7, and students must check in and out and provide a reason for going, Hyatt said.
They are not allowed to leave the hotel property, but Hyatt said she is not aware of any outdoor cameras or anything else that would monitor students’ behavior outside the buildings.
“We’ve very clearly articulated in our policy that students can’t be coming and going, so if that’s observed, the student is provided with one warning, and if it happens again, the student is unable to remain in the isolation facility and will have to go to their home to complete the isolation,” Hyatt said.
MSU has staffed the hotels with employees from the departments of Housing and Residence Life and custodial services, and employees of the Longest Student Health Center are monitoring quarantined students’ health on-site.
MSU’s decision to rent the hotels sparked an open letter earlier this month from some concerned faculty asking administration not to reopen campus, claiming reopen plans were insufficient to protect people from COVID-19. The letter accompanied a petition that gained more than 300 signatures from MSU faculty, staff and students to members of the Starkville community even elsewhere.
Tess Vrbin was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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