By Katie Oglesby and Benjamin Pontz
As students and staff disperse for spring break, Gettysburg College has issued new guidelines about the coronavirus, canceling several spring break trips, and is preparing for the possibility that members of the campus community may need to self-quarantine if they travel to affected areas. As of Saturday evening, Johns Hopkins University reports that there are more than 106,000 confirmed cases worldwide.
An email sent to the community Tuesday outlined new guidelines about travel in wake of the coronavirus:
- Work-related trips to or through countries where the CDC has issued Level Three travel warnings are not permitted.
- All international work-related trips must be approved by the college.
- Any personal travel to or through CDC Level 3 countries must be registered with the college.
- Those who travel to or through Level 3 countries will not be allowed to return to campus without a 14-day quarantine and college approval.
- The college is also encouraging that members of the campus community register all international travel.
Countries that currently have level three travel warnings, which discourage non-essential travel, include Italy, South Korea, China, and Iran.
The college canceled all spring break travel that was to leave the country including trips to Italy and Montenegro, the Middle East, and three trips to Latin America.
Some domestic travel was canceled, while other trips are still going ahead even as the number of cases in the United States grows. On Saturday, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced the state’s third and fourth presumed positive cases, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency now that its total number of cases has reached 89, and Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser confirmed the city’s first case Saturday afternoon.
In addition, on Saturday, the American Conservative Union announced that an attendee of its annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), held last weekend in National Harbor, Maryland, tested positive for the virus and is self-quarantined in New Jersey. About a dozen members of Gettysburg College Republicans were among CPAC’s approximately 20,000 attendees. They were back in classes throughout this week. College spokesperson Jamie Yates said that the college has been in touch with the Pennsylvania Department of Health, who says there is “no identifiable risk” according to the CDC Risk Assessment Scale associated with having been to the conference, but the college is nevertheless asking students to self-monitor their health for the remainder of the week.
As for study abroad, to date, only the China program has been canceled, but Gettysburg’s four students studying this semester in Rome, Italy have been directed either to return home and complete their classes online or to sign a new travel waiver acknowledging the risks of remaining in Italy given the travel warning. Late this week, though, the college asked all students in Italy to return home, Yates said.
Other students studying abroad have varying levels of concern and frustration about the virus and are trying to make the best of the situation.
Thea Toocheck ’21, who is studying in Japan, has had her classes moved online and is not sure if they will ever be moved back to in person. Many students, she said, have already gone home.
“The crazy metro system is the emptiest I’ve seen it yet, everyone is wearing masks, and the stores are running out of toilet paper,” she said.
At the other end of the spectrum, Ryan Destefano ’21, who is studying in Aix en Provence, France, said no one in his program seems particularly concerned and noted that, last weekend, he traveled to Rome.
“[My level of concern is] pretty low, certainly not zero, but I’m not worried,” he said. “I don’t have any plans to go to Italy again, but I do have other upcoming travel plans I plan to go through with. However none of them are to places where cases have as of yet been documented.”
Maddie Neiman ‘21, who is studying abroad in Vienna, Austria, said that her program, which is run through the Institute for the International Education of Students (IES), canceled a planned “study week” that would have left the country.
“I’m doing my best to remain positive and hopeful toward the rest of my time abroad,” she said “IES Vienna does not plan to cancel our program, but they are taking several precautions, including cancelling our study trips (part of which went to Italy) and preparing for a switch to online classes, if necessary.”
Mary Frasier ’21, who is studying abroad in Budapest, Hungary, said the whole situation is disappointing.
“Students go abroad and expect to explore the country they live in and travel to other countries as well,” she said. “Unfortunately, COVID-19 is preventing us from doing that this semester.”
Her program suggested limiting travel for the next few weeks and said that only in the case of a level three or four travel advisory or upon the recommendation of the host country’s government would she be recommended to leave and go back home.
Colleges across the country have implemented various measures in response to the spreading virus. The University of Washington has moved all classes online as the virus has spread in Seattle, where the university’s main campus is located. According to the New York Times, colleges across the country are preparing for the possibility of moving classes online if the outbreak worsens or infects their campuses, and Yale University even suggested students leaving for spring break bring items they may want with them in case their return is delayed.
At Gettysburg, no such measures have been taken, but campus communications have not ruled anything out, and, at a faculty meeting on Thursday, President Bob Iuliano acknowledged the fluidity of the situation and said the Campus Emergency Response Team (CERT) is meeting regularly to assess potential responses by the college.
The close to CERT’s campus-wide email Tuesday indicated as much.
“It is clear that this situation is ongoing and will continue to develop.”
If you’re a Gettysburg student, we want to know how you’re handling the college’s response to the coronavirus. Tell us (anonymously if you prefer) by completing this form:
https://forms.gle/svJ7kPqLZpjkLdYe9
Editor’s Note: This article was updated at 1:10 p.m. on Sunday, March 9 to add new information about students abroad in Italy and students who attended the Conservative Political Action Conference. (-B. Pontz)
