The Flat Hat September 21 2021 by The Flat Hat

T HE F LAT H AT

Vol. 111, Iss. 9 ¦ Tuesday, September 21, 2021

The Weekly Student Newspaper

of The College of William and Mary

COVID CASES

ﬂathatnews.com ¦ @theﬂathat

PILE UP GRAPHIC BY CHARLES COLEMAN / THE FLAT HAT

ZACHARY LUTZKY/ THE FLAT HAT

Changes to quarantine, testing procedures cause confusion among students CLAIRE HOGAN // FLAT HAT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

At the start of the fall semester, the College of William and Mary was sitting at under a dozen positives on its nearly fullyvaccinated campus. But within a week, the number skyrocketed to over 100, then over 200 shortly after. Now, students and faculty are questioning the safety protocols put in place by the College’s administration this semester, which include in-person classes, restricted access to testing and limited quarantine options. QUARANTINE Lucia Eovino ’23 was sent to the Wyndham Gardens Hotel after testing positive for COVID-19. After her two free nights of hotel provided by the College, she had to pay for the rest herself, splitting the cost with her roommate. “It’s an awful thing to say, but I almost wish I had gotten COVID last year, ‘cause at least everything’s online, so my classes are accommodating, and Richmond is open, and I don’t have to spend $20 on one meal just DoorDashing it,” Eovino said. The hotel was $80 a night — $120 on Fridays and Saturdays — along with the cost of delivering food. When Eovino was quarantining, the College still lacked protocols in place to deliver food from the dining halls. Other students, such as Nicki Ganti ’24, found the quarantining protocols disorganized and stressful. Ganti knew she had COVID-19 when she couldn’t taste her mouthwash or toothpaste in the morning, and she immediately reported her symptoms and was transported to the Holiday Inn with the promise that her first two nights were free. But she ended up using her own credit card to pay for the first two nights, hoping to be reimbursed later. “I came in with the idea that I’d go to the hotel, the first two days would be prepaid, and that they were in contact with the hotel, because I didn’t make the reservation, the case manager did,” Ganti said. “So I came in with the idea that they knew my situation, that I could be staying anywhere from two to 10 days.” But after the first two days, hotel staff called her in the

middle of her lecture, informing her that she had to vacate the room or pay for the rest of her stay immediately. And when she took a school-provided COVID-19 test on Sunday, she didn’t get her results back until Thursday. By then, she had already taken an athome test which came back positive. Along with these difficulties, Ganti also felt disheartened by the lack of contact from the College. “They said in the email that we do get calls everyday to check in on us, but we don’t,” Ganti said. “The only time I’ve talked to a case manager or anyone, I’ve always initiated the phone calls, whereas last year they did check in on us every day.” The College sent her a care package, but Ganti found its content unsatisfactory. “It was all frozen meals, and my fridge doesn’t have a freezer, so I had to throw it out because I couldn’t preserve them,” Ganti said. “But I appreciated the gesture” For many students, the financial burden of a hotel stay is prohibitive. But Chief Operating Officer Amy Sebring emphasizes that funds are available for students who need it. “We indicate to the student, if you have a financial need, let us know,” Sebring said. “The university has HEART funds or other emergency funds that can help with your stay. We had a handful of cases where in those instances, we worked with the hotel and said the hotel would just directly bill us, so the student never gets charged.” Additionally, Sebring pointed out the small number of students quarantined in hotels. “The maximum, we’ve had one day where we had 17 students in hotels, so the numbers are really small so far, in total,” Sebring said. “Most of those are students who are just there for a night or two while they wait for mom or dad to pick them up, or wait for morning to drive in the morning, depending on if they’re able to transport themselves.” TESTING Other students had difficulty getting tested in the first

place. Per the College’s guidelines, students have access to tests at the Sadler front desk or through the COVID-19 test vending machine, but only if they’re a confirmed close contact — defined as having spent more than 15 minutes unmasked within six feet of a COVID-positive individual — or have reported symptoms. For some students like Laura Pace ’22 who tested positive, she met neither of those conditions. Pace got tested for COVID-19 unintentionally, after going to urgent care for what she thought was an earache. “I didn’t go to get tested, I got tested because they felt bad for me, pretty much,” Pace said. “If they’d let me walk out of there, I would have been walking around campus infecting people, which is kind of ridiculous.” After her positive test on Monday, Pace filled out the Report COVID form, but by Wednesday she still didn’t have a case manager. “I just think it’s kind of irresponsible to put a bunch of undergraduates on a campus with virtually no restrictions and say, ‘ok, it’s normal!’ and then people get sick and the university’s not responsible for that, in their words,” Pace said. “But they are, everyone here is paying to be here, and it’s their job to make sure everyone is safe, and they’re not doing that, and it’s super frustrating. I want to have a normal semester as much as anyone, but we can’t do that if they’re not taking COVID seriously.” Though the College has 15 case managers and five more in training, the lack of communication from case managers is a common refrain among students who tested positive. Amelia Levine ’24 also was tested off campus, using an at-home kit from Walmart to expedite the process. “It’s really tough for me because I live out-of-state, I live in Connecticut, so I was like, ‘I’m going to need a lot of time to figure out what to do, because I can’t go home and risk my grandparents,’” Levine said. See COVID page 8

CITY COUNCIL

City Council approves three-year pause on four-person dwellings applications Neighborhood Balance Commitee's proposal, Last Word column resurface town and gown tensions LULU DAWES FLAT HAT MANAGING EDITOR

Thursday, Aug. 12, Williamsburg City Council unanimously voted (5-0) in favor of a three-year moratorium on the city code that allows single-family unattached dwellings to rent to four unrelated people. The decision is a continuation of Williamsburgs’ twodecade long struggle with off-campus housing, resurfacing tensions between long-term residents and student renters. The moratorium will pause homeowners’ ability to apply for approval with the City to rent to four unrelated people. While state and city code decree that only three unrelated individuals can live together, the City of Williamsburg passed a law in 2010 that stated an additional fourth person may be allowed in a single-family unattached dwelling if the home meets certain requirements. The moratorium will not affect any homes that have already been approved by the City; it will only stop new houses from applying. The proposed moratorium was first brought

student rental. “Had that happened, we would now be surrounded with students to our left, our right, across from us and behind us at the end of Powell street,” Adams said. “...The absence of permanent residents strongly diminishes our sense of community. Obviously, we do not see our neighbors as often, it's harder to keep up with what’s going on, whether someone needs help … My house was a student rental whe we bought it. In fact, it was an unofficial fraternity party house. It could easily be one again. I expect a few Goodwins street houses to be on the market within the next 5 to 10 years. If the ratio of students to residents gets any worse, the street could easily become a student slum.” The Planning Commision voted 3-2 against the recommendation of the moratorium to City Council. Despite this vote, the moratorium was still proposed to the council and was passed on Aug. 12. City Councilman Caleb Rogers ’20 said that the council approved the moratorium in order to better evaluate the changes that newly developed apartment buildings in the area will

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up at the Williamsburg Planning Commision meeting on July 14 by the Neighborhood Balance Committee. Some members of the committee and Williamsburg residents spoke at the meeting in favor of the moratorium, saying that the transient nature of student renters hurts the neighborhood and that the fourth-person allowance has increased roads’ trash and traffic. A resident on Goodwins street Flora Adams said that approximately half of the 31 residents on her street are students and they do not live permanently in Williamsburg when the College of William and Mary is not in session. “When the four-person rule was passed it was considered a trial to be reevaluated after a few years; now is the time for that revaluation,” Adams said. “As far as I’m concerned, the four person permit has been a failure. A definite detriment to our old residential neighborhood.” Adams mentioned her disapproval with the fact that the approval for four-person houses will transfer with owners if the house is sold, making them more appealing to investors. She also spoke of her fears when a house on her street went on sale as it could have become a

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OAs are unpaid. It's (well past) time to change that

Katie Grotewiel ’22 is an Orientation Aide fighting for the College to pay its OAs, like other Virginia universities do, since OAs perform invaluable work for new students. page 3

have on students living off-campus. Rogers also stated that the mortriaum was placed in order to develop a rent ready program, which would increase landlord accountability and protect students. “This is why the pause for the fourth person rule was put into place — more or so that we can take a step back, see some of the change from our new off campus housing stock, and then ultimately come back with I think protections for both students who are renting in the neighborhoods but also for the local community that may own in the neighborhoods to try to continue that sort of harmony that the Neighborhood Balance Committee was trying to find,” Rogers said. Rogers stated that the three-year moratorium will not affect any students already living off campus, and that on average it would mean only six houses could not apply for a fourperson house approval. Currently, 38 houses in Williamsburg have been granted approval since the law was first passed.

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