College Setting Up Isolation Zones in Residence Hall Rooms on Outskirts of Campus

Posted By Benjamin Pontz on Mar 13, 2020 | 1 comment

(Photo Allyson Frantz/The Gettysburgian)

By Benjamin Pontz, Editor-in-Chief

About ten students returning from college-sponsored spring break trips who would be on campus Friday received phone calls directing them to vacate their rooms in buildings that are on the outskirts of campus so the college can use those spaces as potential isolation zones.

According to three students who received the calls, they were told to remove their belongings from the residence hall rooms and move those belongings to vacant spaces in first-year residence halls. If necessary, they could spend the night in those residence halls and go home Saturday morning. The directives are part of an effort to establish zones where the college could isolate students exhibiting symptoms or otherwise deemed at risk of spreading illness. Rooms in Paxton, Smyser, Lahm, Colonial and Baughman Halls met the standards for isolation rooms as they have private bathrooms and restricted air flow.

Director of Residential Life and First-Year Programming Danielle Phillips disputed the idea that the move implies that the college is planning for all students to return to campus, which suggests it could be a more general precaution as some students remain on campus during the extended spring break — and potentially beyond — due to an inability to return home. Among the trips returning to campus today are a choir tour that went northeast and landed in Boston, an ultimate frisbee trip to Myrtle Beach, and an Eisenhower Institute trip to Little Rock, Arkansas.

Bridget Kennedy ’21 was on that choir tour and received a call earlier today. She lives at Baughman Hall, a building about a mile away from campus that the college leases from the United Lutheran Seminary, and was told that she would need to move to a room in a first-year residence hall by Saturday morning. Choir returned to campus this evening around 6:00 p.m.

“They said they were using Baughmann (sic) Hall as a quarantine area for people who were infected, and we needed to move out first thing tomorrow morning so they could clean and prepare all the rooms,” Kennedy said in a text message. “[I am] extremely stressed, we will likely be up all night packing because we have to be out first thing in the morning.”

Kennedy added that she thinks it is unfair that residents who already live the furthest from campus be the ones to bear the burden of moving.

Benjamin Nagle ’21, who lives in Colonial Hall, a converted motel on Carlisle Street, was also told that he and his roommate need to vacate their room.

“From what I understand the college is making a quarantine zone for sick students that is further away from the rest of campus,” he said.

Residence Life called him at 9:30 Friday morning, while he was still in South Carolina with the ultimate frisbee team for a spring break tournament. The team returned to campus around 7:30 p.m. Friday. Nagle will store his belongings in a first-year residence hall building and take what he can with him on a flight home Saturday morning.

Phillips said that there are no students currently in need of isolation on campus. Residence Life made this decision in consultation with Gettysburg College Health Services, who has been in regular contact with the PA Department of Health, Phillips added. 

“At this time, we only asked students who were on campus to assist in this process by vacating their current rooms in some of these spaces,” Phillips said. “They have been extremely understanding and cooperative.”

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