Survey Raw Responses: What was the biggest challenge or lesson learned with your quarantine/isolation process?

Identifying spaces that met the requirements for isolation and quarantine.
This process was actually very smooth. We added a nurse to the staffing in Residence (in addition to mental health resources already in residence). This provided direct, onsite support, and was a great demonstration of university commitment to keeping the student’s safe.
Setting aside a facility for quarantine and fielding many questions concerning quarantined facilities.
Being mainly a commuter campus with limited housing, we are not able to ensure those coming to campus are practicing COVID protocols we put in place for when they are on campus.
As quarantine has been mostly incoming international students needing to isolate for 2 weeks upon arrival, coordinating communications has been the biggest challenge. We have had no confirmed cases in residences, but since March we have been supporting small numbers of in-house students who need to self-isolate. Staffing for 3 meals per day and meal delivery has been the biggest challenge.
Responsiveness to rapidly changing situation. Not all students/parents agreed to move into quarantine space on campus. Due to high numbers of students requiring quarantine, on campus rooms were supplemented with hotel rooms in the community.
Rapid escalation of positives that eventually overwhelmed the isolation and quarantine beds that were set aside. This led to the closing of residence halls. Currently, we have less than 15% of the on-campus residents still in the residence halls.
Custodians don’t want to clean quarantine rooms after residents’ quarantines are over.
Food delivery to the remote quarantine hotel from campus cafeteria is a challenge.
The best laid plans are only as good as those that keep within the limits and measures in place to keep everyone as safe as possible.
Very high costs for getting these beds set up to “maybe” use. We also have a contract with a hotel which is an additional continuous cost that we are not getting a return on investment from.
Quarantine houses were bare bones – we did not have simple things like boxes of tissues and toiletries available for student use. The house did not feel welcoming and the students felt like they were being abandoned. We added these items and brought sheets to provide to students moving forward. We also quickly realized we needed more case managers to stay in contact with the students in quarantine.
Deciding to have them stay on campus or go to a motel.
We have a very small housing load on our campus compared to most. All our rooms are suite style with at most having two persons in one sleeping area.
We struggled to transport students and their belongings to their new rooms.
The student went home, as planned. Rooms weren’t needed or used.
Ability of the custodial operations to respond to additional cleaning/disinfection of common restrooms/kitchenettes that were used by those put into isolation.
Keeping up with the number of COVID students and being able to move them into a temp space fast enough. It usually takes us about 24 hours to complete the process, but it is not fast enough for students and parents. Also, keeping the communication with staff up to date as this continues to evolve.
Students don’t listen or take this seriously enough to truly contain the problem.
We weren’t prepared for the large number of new students that tested positive and required quarantine.
Make sure that we had plenty of extra beds for quarantine.
Acquiring the space needed.
Ensuring students are a part of the process in order to have a safe campus. They play a HUGE role.
Having students fully comprehend that they may not leave their rooms.
We have been prepared for this. I think we may have been able to work a little closer with students prior to coming to campus but all in all I don’t think the number is that far out of place.
Getting testing results for those who had close contact.
Cleaning between residents.
Making sure everybody is doing their job.
We prepared kits for the units with cleaning/disinfectants and other essentials for their stay but we did not think about the trash/ trash bags. We now have a process for safely picking up the trash in the units without needing to unnecessarily expose staff.
Factoring for uncertainty in the months ahead.
How to process/move the students into these rooms.
Most exposures happen in dormitories and fraternity and sorority parties in closed spaces.
Keeping students from doing stupid things.
Better communication.
Turnover of spaces is time consuming and challenging.
Few rooms with private bathrooms.
Finding local hotels to contract. Requirements from state building agency to get temporary occupancy permits for additional quarantine space on campus posed a few challenges and hoops to jump through.
Complying with some of their specialty food requests.
Working out any issues we might have had with the process, all in all it went well.
Keeping students in quarantine and making sure they stayed in their rooms.
Because we are a boarding college preparatory school, we have a substantial student population that travels from Asia. These students were required to arrive in the U.S. to quarantine within driving distance of our campus at least two weeks prior to start of classes. If they needed a place to stay, one of our dorms was set up to accommodate this group. All students were required to perform the two-week quarantine before arriving on campus.
Getting food to students.
Expanding as needed.
People returning from states on the New York travel restriction list.
Too early to tell. We only learned of this situation a few evenings ago, immediately prior to the holiday weekend.
Logistics of relocating students.
Ensuring the students complied with the quarantine and did not return to campus until allowed to do so.
Maintaining HIPPA while protecting staff and students.
Making sure everyone follows the process in place.
Transportation and meal delivery.
The amount and type of resources needed to support those who are in quarantine and isolation.
Communication between all stakeholders….
If at all possible, we asked students to return to their homes during any isolation or quarantine period and continue their coursework online during that time. If they did have to stay, they were either moved to an isolation space (positive cases only and only if the current room they were in didn’t support true isolation) or asked to quarantine in their assigned space. In both cases, we had to arrange for trash pickups and meal deliveries. The University created a CARES team for students who handled all of these logistics. Facilities setup a procedure to clean true isolation rooms 24-48 hours after they were vacated. If students isolated in their existing assigned space, we did not clean those rooms.
Students do not understand or just don’t care about the impact of their not following safety protocols. Most case spikes have been directly related to student parties where wearing face masks and social distancing were not followed.
Providing care for the students, especially their mental health.
Identifying cleaning processes. We had a great plan on paper but implementation was tricky.
Less students tested positive than anticipated initially.
Guaranteeing students observed requirements.
Things seem to be going as planned.
Having a designated plan has made this very seamless.
Needed to create a “soft” quarantine or isolation when someone has symptoms and is tested, but waiting for result. Meal delivery is being tweaked slightly.
So far this has been for international students arriving on campus and has worked well.
The reporting process by the student and communication between departments once notified.
Understanding quarantine bed requirements vs amount of beds available.
Communication between impacted units: making sure all folks are on the same page.
It is going well so far. We have only had to use 20 of these beds so far.
A few items: Communications to parents, students and senior administrators is critical around the complexity of isolation/quarantine housing. The largest challenge is knowing how many beds will be needed. The level of labor needed to support the students is also a factor. We developed a new case manager position to take care of the needs of the housed student to include physical, mental, and environmental.
Having the necessary supplies on hand to meet the staff PPE requirements and cleaning needs.
Staff and contractor comfort levels with accessing and performing work designated as quarantine locations.
Method to transport students to the isolation rooms from remote dorms.
Students don’t want to follow the rules.
So far, the high turnover in the quarantined residence hall is requiring more cleaning than anticipated.
None reported in our housing units, but a couple across campus. Due to us being mostly online and restricting access, it has had relatively minimal impact to campus operations. Transparent communication has been the largest value add.
Balancing the HIPPA requirements for the individual and keeping facility staff informed on the necessary information to keep them safe.
All positive tests so far were students that live off campus and they are either quarantining in place or went home to isolate or quarantine.
Getting test results at 6 pm on a Friday.
Preparing for support and logistics of the spaces.
Student behavior and lack of adherence to social distancing protocols.
As of now our process is working, but expectations of campus leadership differed from reality.
Student cooperation.
Getting students to understand the guidelines of quarantine and working out the logistics (meals, etc.).
Getting them food. Having them understand that quarantine and isolation mean to stay in your room. You can’t go out for a walk. And bring the items they need – we can’t run to the pharmacy to get you Tylenol.
Being informed of quarantine spaces being used in a timely manner.
Residents live in suites. As one suite-mate either tested positive and/or was exposed and reported, the entire suite was required to leave campus. Suites would then be sanitized top to bottom. Challenge: Some of the students could not go home. Where do they go? Lesson Learned: Have a contingency plan to assist students with this.
Communication between housing, facilities, and EH&S as far as when rooms are occupied, which rooms are occupied, and when students depart from isolation/quarantine. It’s an ongoing issue.
Communication between housing and facilities needed to be better.
Finding places off-campus to quarantine students.
Keeping up communication with our residence life/family graduate housing staff with quarantine rooms and keeping this information current in our CMMS.
Having young adults understand and respect what quarantine means.
Quarantine process for residents still a challenge. Every quarantine is unique and don’t go exactly as planned.
We needed to have more housing units ready than was planned. We are adjusting this week to prepare all remaining available housing units to prepare for a potential worst case scenario.
Challenges in transporting students and delivering meals, etc. to students in isolation/quarantine beds. Massive manpower required for the entire process.
Students are being asked to quarantine off campus. We got push back from students and their family not wanting them to come home.
Getting students to stay in quarantine; in their room.
Good idea to plan for and keep finding new ways to meet the students’ needs while they are displaced, including wellness checks, food, information, etc. Balancing the need to not outwardly identify these spaces, yet keep employees out of them.
This is an ongoing process. Transportation was a challenge but we created a hotline process with shuttles running with trained drivers. Our food service delivers food to rooms safely.
It is making sure that the students (especially the International students) fully understand what is being asked of them and that they are fully supported.
Detailed communication between residence life and facilities management for disinfecting.
Having space identified ahead of the need to utilize and process for relocating students.
Communication of where the student came from (dorm) and what room they were assigned to quarantine. Not having one department/person compiling and sharing information with stakeholders has been problematic.
We are a commuter campus and do not house students.
Remembering to communicate with all the entities involved so meals were prepared and delivered, rooms were cleaned and disinfected, and faculty would know where their students were.
Cleaning protocols for the quarantine rooms & issues of maintenance within those spaces.
Coordination to include outside off-campus students who did not want to quarantine at home or in off-campus residence due to roommates and/or family members with medical conditions.
The first option was always to seek off campus accommodations with family and it worked.
Students staying on campus will require us to re-evaluate providing quarantine space. We will look at sending them home for that period.
Roommates prefer to quarantine together. They don’t want to be alone.
We used part of our 200 rooms to self-quarantine 160 students returning to our state from other states with high positivity rates even if they tested negative. Luckily the 14 day quarantine for the negative out-of-state students ended just on time before we had to place our 41st positive student, otherwise we would have run out of isolation rooms. This still resulted in having to move 160 students to their permanent rooms over the weekend prior to the first day of classes.
Getting meals to them in time.
Be flexible and adapt. Communicate the process of quarantine to faculty and staff.
This has gone remarkably well but we have had small numbers in comparison to what was planned for.
Providing dinning and laundering. Keeping it from being boring for the students. Balancing transparency with staff working in the dorms and abiding by HIPPA requirements.
Providing individual support services to each student. Every person has different needs. Getting them their books, food, signing necessary documents such as financial aid etc.
Informing staff of which units are occupied and/or released. Managing the turn. We now use a visual clamshell lock cover to indicate available (clean) units. This means up to the minute info is available on-site at point of service decreasing reliance on electronic tracking.
Setting up food delivery to quarantined students (who are scattered in current rooms throughout the housing inventory) has been a challenge. We’ve hired temp students to assist with food delivery.
Communication. Making sure that employees and students are checking their emails. Although notification went out, an individual still came to campus the next day. Also a challenge to get current phone numbers for all students and employees.
We were prepared, however, there were some coordination tweaks regarding notifications and when to get custodial in.
Our isolation plan is to relocate students to a separate building. Quarantine is in assigned dorm rooms. Biggest challenge is ensuring that students stay in their rooms while quarantining.
Many of the spaces originally designated for quarantine had to be utilized for regular housing when students/parents were displeased with the condition of their assigned space. Students placed in quarantine were told they couldn’t go anywhere and were stuck in their apartments without toilet paper and in the case of international students without towels and other sundries. First year students were placed in quarantine if they were traveling from a restricted space and weren’t given information of the nuances of their temporary space – i.e. they were issued two keys – one is for the front door of the apartment and the other is for the bedroom door.
All quarantine is travel related to bringing foreign students on campus.
Hotels do not want to house quarantine students.
Students don’t actually stay in their assigned quarantine space. We have to also make sure we are providing 3 meals a day for quarantined students.
Keeping in touch with the students so they know people are out there caring about not only their physical health but also mental health. Most students were freshman who are away from home for the first time. Daily check-ins to make sure they are handling the isolation well is key.
Coordinating transportation if necessary.
Coordination between Res Life, Student Health, Facilities.
We have used only 1 bed for a quarantine, no isolations.
Staffing the meal deliveries and other requests from students in isolation or quarantine.
We made sure the rooms were maintained, cleaned, and disinfected over the summer break, before the move-in, to have ample units ready and waiting when needed.
Quarantining students and how they didn’t seem to understand what that meant.
Preparedness is key. Having a quarantine procedure (room locations, transport for student belongings, food service, notifications, mail service, etc.) in place immediately following move-in was helpful as the student population was re-introduced to the campus. Additionally, Student Life pushed forward with an effort to assure quarantined students were contacted by staff regularly and fully supported through their periods of isolation (especially 1st and 2nd year students).

Identifying spaces that met the requirements for isolation and quarantine.
This process was actually very smooth. We added a nurse to the staffing in Residence (in addition to mental health resources already in residence). This provided direct, onsite support, and was a great demonstration of university commitment to keeping the student’s safe.
Setting aside a facility for quarantine and fielding many questions concerning quarantined facilities.
Being mainly a commuter campus with limited housing, we are not able to ensure those coming to campus are practicing COVID protocols we put in place for when they are on campus.
As quarantine has been mostly incoming international students needing to isolate for 2 weeks upon arrival, coordinating communications has been the biggest challenge. We have had no confirmed cases in residences, but since March we have been supporting small numbers of in-house students who need to self-isolate. Staffing for 3 meals per day and meal delivery has been the biggest challenge.
Responsiveness to rapidly changing situation. Not all students/parents agreed to move into quarantine space on campus. Due to high numbers of students requiring quarantine, on campus rooms were supplemented with hotel rooms in the community.
Rapid escalation of positives that eventually overwhelmed the isolation and quarantine beds that were set aside. This led to the closing of residence halls. Currently, we have less than 15% of the on-campus residents still in the residence halls.
Custodians don’t want to clean quarantine rooms after residents’ quarantines are over.
Food delivery to the remote quarantine hotel from campus cafeteria is a challenge.
The best laid plans are only as good as those that keep within the limits and measures in place to keep everyone as safe as possible.
Very high costs for getting these beds set up to “maybe” use. We also have a contract with a hotel which is an additional continuous cost that we are not getting a return on investment from.
Quarantine houses were bare bones – we did not have simple things like boxes of tissues and toiletries available for student use. The house did not feel welcoming and the students felt like they were being abandoned. We added these items and brought sheets to provide to students moving forward. We also quickly realized we needed more case managers to stay in contact with the students in quarantine.
Deciding to have them stay on campus or go to a motel.
We have a very small housing load on our campus compared to most. All our rooms are suite style with at most having two persons in one sleeping area.
We struggled to transport students and their belongings to their new rooms.
The student went home, as planned. Rooms weren’t needed or used.
Ability of the custodial operations to respond to additional cleaning/disinfection of common restrooms/kitchenettes that were used by those put into isolation.
Keeping up with the number of COVID students and being able to move them into a temp space fast enough. It usually takes us about 24 hours to complete the process, but it is not fast enough for students and parents. Also, keeping the communication with staff up to date as this continues to evolve.
Students don’t listen or take this seriously enough to truly contain the problem.
We weren’t prepared for the large number of new students that tested positive and required quarantine.
Make sure that we had plenty of extra beds for quarantine.
Acquiring the space needed.
Ensuring students are a part of the process in order to have a safe campus. They play a HUGE role.
Having students fully comprehend that they may not leave their rooms.
We have been prepared for this. I think we may have been able to work a little closer with students prior to coming to campus but all in all I don’t think the number is that far out of place.
Getting testing results for those who had close contact.
Cleaning between residents.
Making sure everybody is doing their job.
We prepared kits for the units with cleaning/disinfectants and other essentials for their stay but we did not think about the trash/ trash bags. We now have a process for safely picking up the trash in the units without needing to unnecessarily expose staff.
Factoring for uncertainty in the months ahead.
How to process/move the students into these rooms.
Most exposures happen in dormitories and fraternity and sorority parties in closed spaces.
Keeping students from doing stupid things.
Better communication.
Turnover of spaces is time consuming and challenging.
Few rooms with private bathrooms.
Finding local hotels to contract. Requirements from state building agency to get temporary occupancy permits for additional quarantine space on campus posed a few challenges and hoops to jump through.
Complying with some of their specialty food requests.
Working out any issues we might have had with the process, all in all it went well.
Keeping students in quarantine and making sure they stayed in their rooms.
Because we are a boarding college preparatory school, we have a substantial student population that travels from Asia. These students were required to arrive in the U.S. to quarantine within driving distance of our campus at least two weeks prior to start of classes. If they needed a place to stay, one of our dorms was set up to accommodate this group. All students were required to perform the two-week quarantine before arriving on campus.
Getting food to students.
Expanding as needed.
People returning from states on the New York travel restriction list.
Too early to tell. We only learned of this situation a few evenings ago, immediately prior to the holiday weekend.
Logistics of relocating students.
Ensuring the students complied with the quarantine and did not return to campus until allowed to do so.
Maintaining HIPPA while protecting staff and students.
Making sure everyone follows the process in place.
Transportation and meal delivery.
The amount and type of resources needed to support those who are in quarantine and isolation.
Communication between all stakeholders….
If at all possible, we asked students to return to their homes during any isolation or quarantine period and continue their coursework online during that time. If they did have to stay, they were either moved to an isolation space (positive cases only and only if the current room they were in didn’t support true isolation) or asked to quarantine in their assigned space. In both cases, we had to arrange for trash pickups and meal deliveries. The University created a CARES team for students who handled all of these logistics. Facilities setup a procedure to clean true isolation rooms 24-48 hours after they were vacated. If students isolated in their existing assigned space, we did not clean those rooms.
Students do not understand or just don’t care about the impact of their not following safety protocols. Most case spikes have been directly related to student parties where wearing face masks and social distancing were not followed.
Providing care for the students, especially their mental health.
Identifying cleaning processes. We had a great plan on paper but implementation was tricky.
Less students tested positive than anticipated initially.
Guaranteeing students observed requirements.
Things seem to be going as planned.
Having a designated plan has made this very seamless.
Needed to create a “soft” quarantine or isolation when someone has symptoms and is tested, but waiting for result. Meal delivery is being tweaked slightly.
So far this has been for international students arriving on campus and has worked well.
The reporting process by the student and communication between departments once notified.
Understanding quarantine bed requirements vs amount of beds available.
Communication between impacted units: making sure all folks are on the same page.
It is going well so far. We have only had to use 20 of these beds so far.
A few items: Communications to parents, students and senior administrators is critical around the complexity of isolation/quarantine housing. The largest challenge is knowing how many beds will be needed. The level of labor needed to support the students is also a factor. We developed a new case manager position to take care of the needs of the housed student to include physical, mental, and environmental.
Having the necessary supplies on hand to meet the staff PPE requirements and cleaning needs.
Staff and contractor comfort levels with accessing and performing work designated as quarantine locations.
Method to transport students to the isolation rooms from remote dorms.
Students don’t want to follow the rules.
So far, the high turnover in the quarantined residence hall is requiring more cleaning than anticipated.
None reported in our housing units, but a couple across campus. Due to us being mostly online and restricting access, it has had relatively minimal impact to campus operations. Transparent communication has been the largest value add.
Balancing the HIPPA requirements for the individual and keeping facility staff informed on the necessary information to keep them safe.
All positive tests so far were students that live off campus and they are either quarantining in place or went home to isolate or quarantine.
Getting test results at 6 pm on a Friday.
Preparing for support and logistics of the spaces.
Student behavior and lack of adherence to social distancing protocols.
As of now our process is working, but expectations of campus leadership differed from reality.
Student cooperation.
Getting students to understand the guidelines of quarantine and working out the logistics (meals, etc.).
Getting them food. Having them understand that quarantine and isolation mean to stay in your room. You can’t go out for a walk. And bring the items they need – we can’t run to the pharmacy to get you Tylenol.
Being informed of quarantine spaces being used in a timely manner.
Residents live in suites. As one suite-mate either tested positive and/or was exposed and reported, the entire suite was required to leave campus. Suites would then be sanitized top to bottom. Challenge: Some of the students could not go home. Where do they go? Lesson Learned: Have a contingency plan to assist students with this.
Communication between housing, facilities, and EH&S as far as when rooms are occupied, which rooms are occupied, and when students depart from isolation/quarantine. It’s an ongoing issue.
Communication between housing and facilities needed to be better.
Finding places off-campus to quarantine students.
Keeping up communication with our residence life/family graduate housing staff with quarantine rooms and keeping this information current in our CMMS.
Having young adults understand and respect what quarantine means.
Quarantine process for residents still a challenge. Every quarantine is unique and don’t go exactly as planned.
We needed to have more housing units ready than was planned. We are adjusting this week to prepare all remaining available housing units to prepare for a potential worst case scenario.
Challenges in transporting students and delivering meals, etc. to students in isolation/quarantine beds. Massive manpower required for the entire process.
Students are being asked to quarantine off campus. We got push back from students and their family not wanting them to come home.
Getting students to stay in quarantine; in their room.
Good idea to plan for and keep finding new ways to meet the students’ needs while they are displaced, including wellness checks, food, information, etc. Balancing the need to not outwardly identify these spaces, yet keep employees out of them.
This is an ongoing process. Transportation was a challenge but we created a hotline process with shuttles running with trained drivers. Our food service delivers food to rooms safely.
It is making sure that the students (especially the International students) fully understand what is being asked of them and that they are fully supported.
Detailed communication between residence life and facilities management for disinfecting.
Having space identified ahead of the need to utilize and process for relocating students.
Communication of where the student came from (dorm) and what room they were assigned to quarantine. Not having one department/person compiling and sharing information with stakeholders has been problematic.
We are a commuter campus and do not house students.
Remembering to communicate with all the entities involved so meals were prepared and delivered, rooms were cleaned and disinfected, and faculty would know where their students were.
Cleaning protocols for the quarantine rooms & issues of maintenance within those spaces.
Coordination to include outside off-campus students who did not want to quarantine at home or in off-campus residence due to roommates and/or family members with medical conditions.
The first option was always to seek off campus accommodations with family and it worked.
Students staying on campus will require us to re-evaluate providing quarantine space. We will look at sending them home for that period.
Roommates prefer to quarantine together. They don’t want to be alone.
We used part of our 200 rooms to self-quarantine 160 students returning to our state from other states with high positivity rates even if they tested negative. Luckily the 14 day quarantine for the negative out-of-state students ended just on time before we had to place our 41st positive student, otherwise we would have run out of isolation rooms. This still resulted in having to move 160 students to their permanent rooms over the weekend prior to the first day of classes.
Getting meals to them in time.
Be flexible and adapt. Communicate the process of quarantine to faculty and staff.
This has gone remarkably well but we have had small numbers in comparison to what was planned for.
Providing dinning and laundering. Keeping it from being boring for the students. Balancing transparency with staff working in the dorms and abiding by HIPPA requirements.
Providing individual support services to each student. Every person has different needs. Getting them their books, food, signing necessary documents such as financial aid etc.
Informing staff of which units are occupied and/or released. Managing the turn. We now use a visual clamshell lock cover to indicate available (clean) units. This means up to the minute info is available on-site at point of service decreasing reliance on electronic tracking.
Setting up food delivery to quarantined students (who are scattered in current rooms throughout the housing inventory) has been a challenge. We’ve hired temp students to assist with food delivery.
Communication. Making sure that employees and students are checking their emails. Although notification went out, an individual still came to campus the next day. Also a challenge to get current phone numbers for all students and employees.
We were prepared, however, there were some coordination tweaks regarding notifications and when to get custodial in.
Our isolation plan is to relocate students to a separate building. Quarantine is in assigned dorm rooms. Biggest challenge is ensuring that students stay in their rooms while quarantining.
Many of the spaces originally designated for quarantine had to be utilized for regular housing when students/parents were displeased with the condition of their assigned space. Students placed in quarantine were told they couldn’t go anywhere and were stuck in their apartments without toilet paper and in the case of international students without towels and other sundries. First year students were placed in quarantine if they were traveling from a restricted space and weren’t given information of the nuances of their temporary space – i.e. they were issued two keys – one is for the front door of the apartment and the other is for the bedroom door.
All quarantine is travel related to bringing foreign students on campus.
Hotels do not want to house quarantine students.
Students don’t actually stay in their assigned quarantine space. We have to also make sure we are providing 3 meals a day for quarantined students.
Keeping in touch with the students so they know people are out there caring about not only their physical health but also mental health. Most students were freshman who are away from home for the first time. Daily check-ins to make sure they are handling the isolation well is key.
Coordinating transportation if necessary.
Coordination between Res Life, Student Health, Facilities.
We have used only 1 bed for a quarantine, no isolations.
Staffing the meal deliveries and other requests from students in isolation or quarantine.
We made sure the rooms were maintained, cleaned, and disinfected over the summer break, before the move-in, to have ample units ready and waiting when needed.
Quarantining students and how they didn’t seem to understand what that meant.
Preparedness is key. Having a quarantine procedure (room locations, transport for student belongings, food service, notifications, mail service, etc.) in place immediately following move-in was helpful as the student population was re-introduced to the campus. Additionally, Student Life pushed forward with an effort to assure quarantined students were contacted by staff regularly and fully supported through their periods of isolation (especially 1st and 2nd year students).

Identifying spaces that met the requirements for isolation and quarantine.
This process was actually very smooth. We added a nurse to the staffing in Residence (in addition to mental health resources already in residence). This provided direct, onsite support, and was a great demonstration of university commitment to keeping the student’s safe.
Setting aside a facility for quarantine and fielding many questions concerning quarantined facilities.
Being mainly a commuter campus with limited housing, we are not able to ensure those coming to campus are practicing COVID protocols we put in place for when they are on campus.
As quarantine has been mostly incoming international students needing to isolate for 2 weeks upon arrival, coordinating communications has been the biggest challenge. We have had no confirmed cases in residences, but since March we have been supporting small numbers of in-house students who need to self-isolate. Staffing for 3 meals per day and meal delivery has been the biggest challenge.
Responsiveness to rapidly changing situation. Not all students/parents agreed to move into quarantine space on campus. Due to high numbers of students requiring quarantine, on campus rooms were supplemented with hotel rooms in the community.
Rapid escalation of positives that eventually overwhelmed the isolation and quarantine beds that were set aside. This led to the closing of residence halls. Currently, we have less than 15% of the on-campus residents still in the residence halls.
Custodians don’t want to clean quarantine rooms after residents’ quarantines are over.
Food delivery to the remote quarantine hotel from campus cafeteria is a challenge.
The best laid plans are only as good as those that keep within the limits and measures in place to keep everyone as safe as possible.
Very high costs for getting these beds set up to “maybe” use. We also have a contract with a hotel which is an additional continuous cost that we are not getting a return on investment from.
Quarantine houses were bare bones – we did not have simple things like boxes of tissues and toiletries available for student use. The house did not feel welcoming and the students felt like they were being abandoned. We added these items and brought sheets to provide to students moving forward. We also quickly realized we needed more case managers to stay in contact with the students in quarantine.
Deciding to have them stay on campus or go to a motel.
We have a very small housing load on our campus compared to most. All our rooms are suite style with at most having two persons in one sleeping area.
We struggled to transport students and their belongings to their new rooms.
The student went home, as planned. Rooms weren’t needed or used.
Ability of the custodial operations to respond to additional cleaning/disinfection of common restrooms/kitchenettes that were used by those put into isolation.
Keeping up with the number of COVID students and being able to move them into a temp space fast enough. It usually takes us about 24 hours to complete the process, but it is not fast enough for students and parents. Also, keeping the communication with staff up to date as this continues to evolve.
Students don’t listen or take this seriously enough to truly contain the problem.
We weren’t prepared for the large number of new students that tested positive and required quarantine.
Make sure that we had plenty of extra beds for quarantine.
Acquiring the space needed.
Ensuring students are a part of the process in order to have a safe campus. They play a HUGE role.
Having students fully comprehend that they may not leave their rooms.
We have been prepared for this. I think we may have been able to work a little closer with students prior to coming to campus but all in all I don’t think the number is that far out of place.
Getting testing results for those who had close contact.
Cleaning between residents.
Making sure everybody is doing their job.
We prepared kits for the units with cleaning/disinfectants and other essentials for their stay but we did not think about the trash/ trash bags. We now have a process for safely picking up the trash in the units without needing to unnecessarily expose staff.
Factoring for uncertainty in the months ahead.
How to process/move the students into these rooms.
Most exposures happen in dormitories and fraternity and sorority parties in closed spaces.
Keeping students from doing stupid things.
Better communication.
Turnover of spaces is time consuming and challenging.
Few rooms with private bathrooms.
Finding local hotels to contract. Requirements from state building agency to get temporary occupancy permits for additional quarantine space on campus posed a few challenges and hoops to jump through.
Complying with some of their specialty food requests.
Working out any issues we might have had with the process, all in all it went well.
Keeping students in quarantine and making sure they stayed in their rooms.
Because we are a boarding college preparatory school, we have a substantial student population that travels from Asia. These students were required to arrive in the U.S. to quarantine within driving distance of our campus at least two weeks prior to start of classes. If they needed a place to stay, one of our dorms was set up to accommodate this group. All students were required to perform the two-week quarantine before arriving on campus.
Getting food to students.
Expanding as needed.
People returning from states on the New York travel restriction list.
Too early to tell. We only learned of this situation a few evenings ago, immediately prior to the holiday weekend.
Logistics of relocating students.
Ensuring the students complied with the quarantine and did not return to campus until allowed to do so.
Maintaining HIPPA while protecting staff and students.
Making sure everyone follows the process in place.
Transportation and meal delivery.
The amount and type of resources needed to support those who are in quarantine and isolation.
Communication between all stakeholders….
If at all possible, we asked students to return to their homes during any isolation or quarantine period and continue their coursework online during that time. If they did have to stay, they were either moved to an isolation space (positive cases only and only if the current room they were in didn’t support true isolation) or asked to quarantine in their assigned space. In both cases, we had to arrange for trash pickups and meal deliveries. The University created a CARES team for students who handled all of these logistics. Facilities setup a procedure to clean true isolation rooms 24-48 hours after they were vacated. If students isolated in their existing assigned space, we did not clean those rooms.
Students do not understand or just don’t care about the impact of their not following safety protocols. Most case spikes have been directly related to student parties where wearing face masks and social distancing were not followed.
Providing care for the students, especially their mental health.
Identifying cleaning processes. We had a great plan on paper but implementation was tricky.
Less students tested positive than anticipated initially.
Guaranteeing students observed requirements.
Things seem to be going as planned.
Having a designated plan has made this very seamless.
Needed to create a “soft” quarantine or isolation when someone has symptoms and is tested, but waiting for result. Meal delivery is being tweaked slightly.
So far this has been for international students arriving on campus and has worked well.
The reporting process by the student and communication between departments once notified.
Understanding quarantine bed requirements vs amount of beds available.
Communication between impacted units: making sure all folks are on the same page.
It is going well so far. We have only had to use 20 of these beds so far.
A few items: Communications to parents, students and senior administrators is critical around the complexity of isolation/quarantine housing. The largest challenge is knowing how many beds will be needed. The level of labor needed to support the students is also a factor. We developed a new case manager position to take care of the needs of the housed student to include physical, mental, and environmental.
Having the necessary supplies on hand to meet the staff PPE requirements and cleaning needs.
Staff and contractor comfort levels with accessing and performing work designated as quarantine locations.
Method to transport students to the isolation rooms from remote dorms.
Students don’t want to follow the rules.
So far, the high turnover in the quarantined residence hall is requiring more cleaning than anticipated.
None reported in our housing units, but a couple across campus. Due to us being mostly online and restricting access, it has had relatively minimal impact to campus operations. Transparent communication has been the largest value add.
Balancing the HIPPA requirements for the individual and keeping facility staff informed on the necessary information to keep them safe.
All positive tests so far were students that live off campus and they are either quarantining in place or went home to isolate or quarantine.
Getting test results at 6 pm on a Friday.
Preparing for support and logistics of the spaces.
Student behavior and lack of adherence to social distancing protocols.
As of now our process is working, but expectations of campus leadership differed from reality.
Student cooperation.
Getting students to understand the guidelines of quarantine and working out the logistics (meals, etc.).
Getting them food. Having them understand that quarantine and isolation mean to stay in your room. You can’t go out for a walk. And bring the items they need – we can’t run to the pharmacy to get you Tylenol.
Being informed of quarantine spaces being used in a timely manner.
Residents live in suites. As one suite-mate either tested positive and/or was exposed and reported, the entire suite was required to leave campus. Suites would then be sanitized top to bottom. Challenge: Some of the students could not go home. Where do they go? Lesson Learned: Have a contingency plan to assist students with this.
Communication between housing, facilities, and EH&S as far as when rooms are occupied, which rooms are occupied, and when students depart from isolation/quarantine. It’s an ongoing issue.
Communication between housing and facilities needed to be better.
Finding places off-campus to quarantine students.
Keeping up communication with our residence life/family graduate housing staff with quarantine rooms and keeping this information current in our CMMS.
Having young adults understand and respect what quarantine means.
Quarantine process for residents still a challenge. Every quarantine is unique and don’t go exactly as planned.
We needed to have more housing units ready than was planned. We are adjusting this week to prepare all remaining available housing units to prepare for a potential worst case scenario.
Challenges in transporting students and delivering meals, etc. to students in isolation/quarantine beds. Massive manpower required for the entire process.
Students are being asked to quarantine off campus. We got push back from students and their family not wanting them to come home.
Getting students to stay in quarantine; in their room.
Good idea to plan for and keep finding new ways to meet the students’ needs while they are displaced, including wellness checks, food, information, etc. Balancing the need to not outwardly identify these spaces, yet keep employees out of them.
This is an ongoing process. Transportation was a challenge but we created a hotline process with shuttles running with trained drivers. Our food service delivers food to rooms safely.
It is making sure that the students (especially the International students) fully understand what is being asked of them and that they are fully supported.
Detailed communication between residence life and facilities management for disinfecting.
Having space identified ahead of the need to utilize and process for relocating students.
Communication of where the student came from (dorm) and what room they were assigned to quarantine. Not having one department/person compiling and sharing information with stakeholders has been problematic.
We are a commuter campus and do not house students.
Remembering to communicate with all the entities involved so meals were prepared and delivered, rooms were cleaned and disinfected, and faculty would know where their students were.
Cleaning protocols for the quarantine rooms & issues of maintenance within those spaces.
Coordination to include outside off-campus students who did not want to quarantine at home or in off-campus residence due to roommates and/or family members with medical conditions.
The first option was always to seek off campus accommodations with family and it worked.
Students staying on campus will require us to re-evaluate providing quarantine space. We will look at sending them home for that period.
Roommates prefer to quarantine together. They don’t want to be alone.
We used part of our 200 rooms to self-quarantine 160 students returning to our state from other states with high positivity rates even if they tested negative. Luckily the 14 day quarantine for the negative out-of-state students ended just on time before we had to place our 41st positive student, otherwise we would have run out of isolation rooms. This still resulted in having to move 160 students to their permanent rooms over the weekend prior to the first day of classes.
Getting meals to them in time.
Be flexible and adapt. Communicate the process of quarantine to faculty and staff.
This has gone remarkably well but we have had small numbers in comparison to what was planned for.
Providing dinning and laundering. Keeping it from being boring for the students. Balancing transparency with staff working in the dorms and abiding by HIPPA requirements.
Providing individual support services to each student. Every person has different needs. Getting them their books, food, signing necessary documents such as financial aid etc.
Informing staff of which units are occupied and/or released. Managing the turn. We now use a visual clamshell lock cover to indicate available (clean) units. This means up to the minute info is available on-site at point of service decreasing reliance on electronic tracking.
Setting up food delivery to quarantined students (who are scattered in current rooms throughout the housing inventory) has been a challenge. We’ve hired temp students to assist with food delivery.
Communication. Making sure that employees and students are checking their emails. Although notification went out, an individual still came to campus the next day. Also a challenge to get current phone numbers for all students and employees.
We were prepared, however, there were some coordination tweaks regarding notifications and when to get custodial in.
Our isolation plan is to relocate students to a separate building. Quarantine is in assigned dorm rooms. Biggest challenge is ensuring that students stay in their rooms while quarantining.
Many of the spaces originally designated for quarantine had to be utilized for regular housing when students/parents were displeased with the condition of their assigned space. Students placed in quarantine were told they couldn’t go anywhere and were stuck in their apartments without toilet paper and in the case of international students without towels and other sundries. First year students were placed in quarantine if they were traveling from a restricted space and weren’t given information of the nuances of their temporary space – i.e. they were issued two keys – one is for the front door of the apartment and the other is for the bedroom door.
All quarantine is travel related to bringing foreign students on campus.
Hotels do not want to house quarantine students.
Students don’t actually stay in their assigned quarantine space. We have to also make sure we are providing 3 meals a day for quarantined students.
Keeping in touch with the students so they know people are out there caring about not only their physical health but also mental health. Most students were freshman who are away from home for the first time. Daily check-ins to make sure they are handling the isolation well is key.
Coordinating transportation if necessary.
Coordination between Res Life, Student Health, Facilities.
We have used only 1 bed for a quarantine, no isolations.
Staffing the meal deliveries and other requests from students in isolation or quarantine.
We made sure the rooms were maintained, cleaned, and disinfected over the summer break, before the move-in, to have ample units ready and waiting when needed.
Quarantining students and how they didn’t seem to understand what that meant.
Preparedness is key. Having a quarantine procedure (room locations, transport for student belongings, food service, notifications, mail service, etc.) in place immediately following move-in was helpful as the student population was re-introduced to the campus. Additionally, Student Life pushed forward with an effort to assure quarantined students were contacted by staff regularly and fully supported through their periods of isolation (especially 1st and 2nd year students).

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