Dear Chapman University Community,
Imagine my surprise coming back to campus after Spring Break to see that not only had Chapman University removed the question from the Daily Covid Screening concerning out-of-state travel, but they also stopped checking for their Daily Covid Screenings altogether. A vast portion of the student population goes away for Spring Break to places like Miami, Las Vegas, and Cabo San Lucas (that just so happen to be known COVID-19 hotspots) just for Chapman University to not force them to get retested upon return like they had since Thanksgiving Break. Spring Breakers are notoriously irresponsible partiers, and especially this year, they let loose even more because they missed out for the past two years.
Roughly around the same time, Chapman University stopped reporting the number of active COVID-19 cases on the University’s COVID-19 Dashboard due to Orange County’s “LOW” exposure risk standing by the CDC (Covid Dashboard). Seeing the statistics posted on this dashboard gave many students, including myself, peace of mind navigating campus throughout this pandemic. Now it is just a list of ominous potential and low exposure risks, averaging eight instances a day (every weekday) since we’ve been back.
The timing of this happening seems very suspicious, almost as if Chapman University is trying to hide the positivity rates as Spring Break came to a close and the mask mandates disappeared in order to keep a good face in the public eye. Additionally, they want to impress prospective students and their families as they come for campus tours. A more “normal” looking campus with no ominous statistics being held against them will leave a positive connotation in the minds of prospective students, incentivizing them to choose this school.
While I live in Chapman housing, I visit my grandparents almost every weekend. Their histories of cancer and asthma along with other ailments with their age make them very susceptible to the virus despite being fully vaccinated. I have been doing everything in my ability to keep them safe because I am the only person in the family who does not work from home, but Chapman University’s COVID-19 regulations make it very difficult to do so.
This makes me ask myself, does Chapman University really care about the welfare and safety of its students, families, and community, or does it do everything in its power to appeal to conservative donors and prospective students in order to make more money?
The following is a list of some grievances compiled by myself and my fellow classmates concerning Chapman University's COVID-19 policies in hopes that they will improve before the next inevitable global pandemic:
The simplicity of Chapman’s Daily COVID Screening questions makes students, faculty, and staff very rarely take them seriously as they fill it out. Having the same question being force-fed to you every day for the last eight months simply makes the questionnaire lose its meaning. I have seen students scramble for their phones as they are late to class, quickly scan the QR code on the wall, and press “NO” as fast as they can to get the “CLEAR” in the green text in order to show it to the COVID CLEAR personnel and speed off to class. They are also some of the easiest things that students could be disingenuous with if they tried hard enough. I’ve overheard stories of my classmates saying that they’ve reused the same “CLEARED” screenshot for a week before being caught and it was because it was a different month. There is also no way of confirming that your name matched the name on your “CLEAR” confirmation; everyone could be using the same screenshot with the same name and the COVID CLEAR personnel would not bat an eye.
Cal Poly Pomona, on the other hand, requires its students, faculty, and staff to answer eight questions on the Campus Community Health Screener to access campus (Health Screener). This form asks their community questions about their role on campus, if they’ve flown in the last two weeks, if they’ve been ordered to quarantine, come into contact with anyone who has tested positive in the past 10 days, are up to date on their COVID-19 vaccinations, if they are experiencing any “unexpected” symptoms of COVID-19, and more. While it does take more time to fill out than Chapman’s Daily COVID Screening, at least it ensures that people are legitimately reading the questions as they do it.
Here are some suggestions to better the Chapman Daily COVID Screening system:
Separating the current questions into 3 (or 4 to include the out-of-state travel) pages on the form making the community think about their answers more to better protect us:
1. Covid Symptoms Question - [student chooses Yes or No]
2. Close Contact Question - [student chooses Yes or No]
3. Fever Question - [student chooses Yes or No]
4. Out of State Travel Question - [student chooses Yes or No]
Combat the lack of identification by including the student’s picture on the confirmation or require them to show ID at the door
Include more easily identifiable dates for COVID CLEAR personnel
date not in the same color and/or font as the other parts of the confirmation
Chapman prided itself throughout the pandemic on the expensive COVID tracking team they used throughout the year we’ve been back, but I’ve never seen it be executed well. During the second week of school last semester, the person sitting next to me in my Political Research Design class tested positive. My professor was the only one who got an email from the tracking team, and as an extra precaution he sent out an email to all of us to let us know (which he was not at all required to do). Luckily I was fine, but I was outraged that this team was not doing its job by notifying me personally. I see that it is hard in college because there is no assigned seating, but they should have figured out a way of doing so anyways or just emailed the entire class altogether. I am also very aware that this was not a one-time occurrence. There would be students who regularly sit in my vicinity (within 6 ft) who would disappear for two weeks (sometimes appearing on zoom when the professor would allow) and then come back to people asking them how they were feeling.
The University of California, Irvine, receives one-question screenings to get on campus (like Chapman) but the University of California system “requires all students, faculty, and staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before they will be allowed on campus or in a facility or office”(UC COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement). Additionally, they also have an excellent COVID-19 tracking team, that notifies students even if one student test positive in a 300-person lecture (Marcellotti).
A suggestion to better the COVID tracking system:
Create better communication with students by using tracking team for direct communication with the closely exposed AND letting people know when there is an exposure in their classrooms
Finally, professors very rarely stand up for the school’s COVID-19 rules, many times due to their own personal views. I’ve watched some of my professors say nothing as their students walk into class with their masks under their noses, or without a mask at all. I get it, you cannot expect professors to babysit and micromanage a room of adults, but if they don’t, who will? There are also shuttle drivers who decide to do the same. There’s one specific shuttle driver that I would always get in the afternoons who would never wear his mask over his nose. When I would kindly remind him and he would comply, but then I would get into my seat and he would lower it back down. One time I also saw him let someone on the bus without checking his COVID clearance without a mask at all. Since the bus was nearly full, he was forced to sit next to me and went the entirety of the shuttle ride without a mask at all. The public transportation mandate instated for the entire country helped this occur very minimally until just recently a Trump-appointed judge decided to take it away this month.
Here are some suggestions to better the following of COVID-19 rules:
Creating some sort of designated hotline or anonymous form for students to report the infringement of policies
Having consequences for staff members infringing policies
Some additional suggestions from the Chapman Community:
Professors should be more lenient about excused absences - a lack of leniency incentivizes students to come to class when they are ill
The school should offer hybrid/online classes - for the safety of students with compromised immune systems
Continuation of free COVID-19 testing - as of right now, only students presenting symptoms are allowed to get tested on campus. This incentivizes students to not get tested when exposed because it is difficult to find another free testing center.
Continuation of the COVID-19 Dashboard Positivity reports - Chapman has the resources to do so, why should it hold it back from the students who used it?
As campus rules relax and we move away from the pandemic, I hope that Chapman University learns from its inconsistencies and takes them into consideration for future public safety concerns to better protect their community.
Works Cited
Amador, Arielle. "Chapman University Interview." 14 Apr. 2022.
Bravo, Bianca. “Fullerton College Interview.” 14 Apr. 2022.
“Covid Dashboard.” CU Safely Back, Chapman University, 7 Apr. 2022, https://cusafelyback.chapman.edu/dashboard/.
Marcellioti, Francesca. “UC Irvine interview”. 16 Apr. 2022.
“Health Screener.” Safe Return at Cal Poly Pomona, 2022, https://www.cpp.edu/safer- return/checklist/prior-to-campus.shtml.
“UC COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement.” UC San Diego, 14 Jan. 2022, https://blink.ucsd.edu/HR/services/covid-19/vaccine/index.html#:~:text=The%20University%20of%20California%20requires,receiving%20a%20booster%20by%20Jan.
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