The students at UW-Madison who have been quarantined inside two freshman dorms were released from their isolation on Wednesday, September 23rd.
Witte and Sellery, two dorms on the Southeast side of campus who are known for their active party scene, were quarantined for two weeks following an order from Chancellor Rebecca Blank on September 9th. The order came a little over a week after classes started, prompted by a sharp rise in coronavirus cases in downtown Madison.
The reopening of the Witte and Sellery dorms has evoked worry among students who live in downtown Madison. Students are concerned about another rise in cases, and feel as if the University and Dane County are not doing enough to protect them.
Dane County officials such as Joe Parisi, the County Executive, have asked the University to send all of the students living in dorms home. Since his first letter to Chancellor Blank on September 9th, Parisi has renewed his call for UW-Madison to close the dorms and switch to fully virtual instruction.
Aerin-Leigh Lammers, Vice Chair of the Associated Students of Madison, the student governance body on campus said that “It is ridiculous for Joe Parisi to ask the Chancellor to send all students in the dorms home when Dane County has not closed the bars in Madison”.
As of right now, bars in Madison are permitted to provide outdoor seating with physical distancing, according to Dane County’s ninth order regarding public safety during the Coronavirus crisis.
Erin Bruehlman, a Junior living in downtown Madison said “the Freshmen should probably not have been here in the first place because the University understood that there would be a surge in cases.”
According to the Public Health services of Madison and Dane County, since the week of September 3rd, Coronavirus cases in Dane County have been rapidly increasing. The percent of positive Coronavirus tests in Dane County that are from UW-Madison rose from 27% during the week of September 3rd, to 76% during the week of September 17th.
Some students feel that the University mishandled the reopening of campus, and think that more measures should have been taken to ensure the safety of students and staff.
Aerin-Leigh said that “I don’t think that students should have been allowed back on campus in the first place, there shouldn't have been in person classes and there certainly shouldn’t have been dorms open”. She thinks that the University is handling the Coronavirus crisis worse than Dane County, stating that “before the University opened back up Dane County had fairly low numbers, they were doing a pretty good job of keeping people safe”.
In an email to students sent the morning of September 23rd, Chancellor Rebecca Blank said that the reopening of the dorms would be accompanied by an increase in testing, and a reduction in the concentration of students in residence halls.
The reopening of dorms garnered pushback from Joe Parisi, who said in a press release that “This implicit acceptance that some people are just going to get sick... is entirely unacceptable when individuals have the ability to make decisions right now to prevent this from continuing”.
The Chancellor responded to this remark in a press release of her own, stating that “It’s long past time to stop arguing. We’d welcome a conversation on how we can work together to help our community”, she later released a tweet that explicitly called on Executive Parisi to “become a partner in promoting and enforcing safe behavior in off-campus spaces”.
Student leader Aerin-Leigh agrees that everyone needs to work together to help keep coronavirus under control in Madison, but does not think that the University or Dane County are taking effective measures.
“I think it is a group effort to keep everyone safe, students need to do their part, Dane County needs to close the bars, and the chancellor needs to do a better job at making sure that students are safe” Aerin Leigh said.
In response to Dane County Executive Parisi’s request to send students in the dorms home, Aerin-Leigh said that “the UW-Students are basically only infecting other UW students, I think that the Chancellor knows that sending students home would be more detrimental to students home communities than it is to Dane County residents”.
Erin Bruehlman said she is “assuming we will probably see another spike in Coronavirus cases now that Witte and Sellery have been released… I’m hoping that people will be more careful now after being quarantined for two weeks, but we’ll see”, Erin said.
It remains to be seen if the measures the University is taking will effectively reduce the spread of Coronavirus on campus.
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