Survey Raw Responses: Challenges with External Community

APPA > Survey Raw Responses: Challenges with External Community

International students.

None.

Getting the surrounding community to understand that our usually “open campus” is not that way for the duration of the pandemic.

None that I am aware of. Initially the local community was wary about the arrival of students and the potential that they would bring the virus with them. Those fears have subsided.

Student enrollment.

Meeting expectations and misinformation primarily generated by the teacher’s union.

CSU seems to be doing well with our community relationships.

Testing and actions of students living off campus.

COVID mask compliance.

Flow of information from outside relations in.

Communication when a facility is to be used.  Closed facilities are not cleaned and disinfected, so sporadic use makes it difficult to insure all facilities are cleaned after use.

At this point, it’s really just perception.  But we did a great job this fall to keep cases very low, so we’ve proven to the community that we’re devoted and we can handle it – that goes a long way with them.

Students in off campus housing.

None.

Information sharing.

Parents.

Face to face meetings.

Managing behavior of students living off campus – preventing large gatherings, ensuring students socialize within their house with their housemates, etc.

Not aware.

Telling the public that they cannot get tested on-site (our testing is only for students and employees.)

Dept. adjusted responsibilities due to COVID. Shift in services.

None known at this time.

Closure of our campus (which is The Scott Arboretum and considered by many as the community park) to the non-college community.

Closing the campus to outside families that take walks on our campus.

The frat houses that are in the community and large gatherings and enforcement.  Their concern with the number of students coming from other states and if they have been tested before they arrive.

Social gatherings at off-campus locations.

Attempting to procure goods and equipment, while minimizing guests on campus is a challenge to make a final decision.  Virtual conferences do not allow for the opportunity to network and see products the same.  ISSA virtual was a major hiccup to impact our decisions.

Managing football games during the upsurge in the pandemic.

None.

Getting registration up.

Events.

Frequent requests from the community to use campus facilities for housing due to COVID and COVID testing.

City stay at home orders.

Our dashboard is easily accessible and the town’s is not.  Although our university positive case numbers are lower (percentage wise) than the surrounding community, we often get blamed for being the source of bringing COVID-19 to the surrounding community.

Community concerns with our students going home and coming back.

We have an excellent relationship with Public Health and are invited to the weekly EOC updates for our region.  the community looks upon our student and our activities in a positive light. We have had cases onsite but no case transmission.

Since the College of William & Mary is surrounded by a lot of retired communities, we have very little if any community issues.

Manhattan is essentially locked down. Our Manhattan based students have no incentive to live on campus.

Keeping buildings open to public.  Telling students to isolate and not hang out in public or have parties.

Establishing new programs with dwindling resources and new restrictions.

Continuing lack of access to campus.

Still skepticism among the local community that bring student back won’t adversely impacted community health and economy.

Local political leaders have questioned our institution’s decision to bring students to campus.

In Wyoming people are fiercely independent. They do not take well to being told what to do. Even when it can make them safer. My single greatest challenge is keeping my people safe by following safe practices even those which are recommended rather than mandated.

None.

The community resents and blames the university for the dramatic influx of positive cases.

The fear that the students are accelerating community spread.

Keeping people off campus who should not be there.

Social distancing when visiting campus.

Getting everyone to consistently wear masks while on campus.

The politicization of the use of face masks in relation to COVID.

Off campus excursions which have been curtailed and limited.

Our outdoor areas are now closed for construction. These areas were routinely used for local groups to meet outdoors.

Preventing the spread of COVID from the community to students who bring it back to campus.

Their belief that our students are the cause of the community spread now occurring.

Community COVID-19 testing location on our campus which is not preferred for our students/staff.

Communicating the importance of staying off campus while students are in residence and taking classes.

Uniform compliance by outside contractors and service providers with campus COVID-19 Prevention Plan.

The behavior of off campus students not following recommendations and guidelines for gatherings, crowd size, etc.  The impact on student teaching as we prepare teaching professionals with K-12 students being online or hybrid with less exposure to the classroom prior to graduation.

N/A.

We closed our campus to external visitors. At first there was some push back, but most seem to understand.

Control of off-campus population.

Community spread.  We’ve had close to 4,500 positive cases since the semester started.  We have a smaller local hospital.

Perception.

Managing community spread, and events that tend to spread the virus.

Being left out and not always in the loop. Getting some updates second hand.

None.

Community does not want the students to be here in person.

With COVID, everyone is siloed. The community is staying to themselves and so are we.  Not much rubbing elbows.  Our community, (except restaurants) are happy, less traffic, noise, lights, events for residential community.

Student behavior once outside the classroom.

As the volume increased in our community, the County resources did not increase.

Clear, consistent messaging to students and general public.

None – we work well with local health officials.

Reduced interaction and unavailability for use of schedulable and rentable facilities.

Off campus student actions, particularly social, continue to be criticized as students do not see themselves in the same risk category as others.

Use of the campus as a park.

In our area the community has been pretty good.

N/A.

Health department being overwhelmed.

Enforcement of regulations.

Bars not complying with public health guidance.

The need to go to tighter lockdown in the community.  More control over bars and restaurants.

None.

Belief campus is driving positivity rates in the county.  Fact is, the outlying small communities are driving the county positivity rates (determined from a zip code analysis), and campus has a positivity rate below 6% right now. Count also criticism of in-person sporting events decisions.   Community did adopt campus cares campaign to market the four tenets of wearing a face covering, physical distancing, washing of hands, and stay away if sick.

The community members that don’t think they need to wear a mask or social distance.

Too many vendors trying to sell products and services.

Fear.

Public not allowed in research facility.

Making sure the local news service doesn’t blow things out of proportion.

Community guests are not wearing masks when on campus.  The common response is that since they are outside, they do not need to wear a mask.

Enforcing face coverings off campus.

Broad restrictions in the area.

The high rate of infection of the population of the county we are located within.

Off campus housing and bad behavior.

None at this time.

Community blames students for bringing COVID to the rural area, and there is continued resistance to following protocols.

The economic impact to the community with students required to stay on campus.

Addressing the irrational fear that healthy young adults are going to die from this disease.

Fully communicating what our university has done on multiple fronts to fight COVID and ensure safety. Community concern of students spreading the virus because of not wearing masks when off campus.

Social media continues to provide false or inaccurate information at times.

Continuing communication to keep everyone on same sheet and under similar conditions. only 5,500 or so of 27,500 reside on campus with another 1,200 or so in Greek Houses.

Community is much worse on positive cases than campus, therefore is impacting campus. Campus is much safer than surrounding community relative to COVID exposure and potential infection.

Irresponsible actions from COVID fatigued students who want to socialize and create unnecessary risk and are contributing to the spread of the virus.

All involved need to stand together and enforce the same mandates.

We had no meetings so no extra income.

Students being in town and not following the protocols set in place for the community’s safety.

Everyone is short staffed.

Education on the actual disease and proper use of PPE and social distancing.

No challenges.

Restaurants and other local establishments not requiring face coverings and social distancing.

N/A  we have excellent external community relationships

Students who blatantly ignore social distancing and mask wearing protocols.

Understanding our process.

Edge of campus private housing for students.  This “bubble” around campus is not compliant with the community standards set for on-campus behavior.  No way to effectively enforce the university standards, so the community adjacent to this housing is seeing this as a university problem to resolve.  The city has not engaged to any positive effect.

Almost no face to face meetings.

Crowd limitations.

We implemented masks to be worn at all times. Many town residents will walk around campus often not complying with this mandate.

Getting locals who visit campus to jog/walk the dog/etc. to wear masks. Also getting contractors to observe all COVID precautions.

N/A

Neighborhood visitors on campus such as dog walkers.

Liberal Arts political views differ from a conservative community.

The community is leery of students and the ability of the University to control off-campus housing events.

Off campus students being a major source of our isolation and quarantine cases.  Right before the end of the semester we had a couple of clusters, all off campus.

Discouraging the off-campus housing gatherings.

People only reading headlines versus entire communications.  Confusion about what is campus-spread vs. general community spread of infections.  Community spread is higher, but the locals blame the students.

We are located away from most residential areas.  The fact that we are almost totally remote is impacting the community because of lost business.

personal accountability

Communicating how social distancing protocols protect everyone, faculty, staff, student, and the community in a way that is understood and accepted. There is still a large part of the community that refuses to believe in the effectiveness of the social distancing protocols and therefore are resistant to participating in those protocols.

No challenge, communication is number one plan and seems to be right on.

Our campus is closed to non-essential visitors, but we have an open, non-gated campus so there is no way to restrict the community from being on campus to walk, exercise, etc.

Misinformation from other sources.

None that I know of.

Surrounding community largely dismisses the seriousness of the virus.

Managing the PR.  With Faculty, staff and students at about 20,000 in a town of 50,000 we do get some finger pointing.

n/a

Community pointing to university as source of COVID in town. Local businesses not following state guidelines or implementing protocols as strict as university. Enforcement off campus of COVID protocols.

The response of the community on wearing face masks

Getting community members who walk through the campus to wear masks.

We are a community leader so at this point have not had any issues beyond working with the local health department.  However, our relationship with them is positive.  We will continue to work closely with them as we work thru our plan and as we work thru the semester

No real challenges externally.

The people who live in State College borough are very nervous about living next door to thousands of students, who may not be taking this virus seriously.