School deals with student exodus
Kutztown University loses $3.5 million in room and board fees
When fall semester rolled around, Kutztown University was one of several schools that opened its doors to students, welcoming about 3,300 back to campus.
But within a fewweeks, about 1,000 of them were gone, choosing online learning amid rising cases of COVID19 on campus and taking with them $3.5 million in room and board fees the university otherwise would have collected.
As the university grapples with the budget hit and exodus of students, its large number of coronavirus cases also is causing concern among some community members who wonder whether the young people they pass on the street and in the grocery aisles could make them sick highlighting the struggle of conducting in-person learning during the pandemic.
The university’s proportion of students who opted for remote work far exceeds that of other colleges in the Lehigh Valley, some of which opened only for some students, and none of which saw more than a couple dozen head home. Moravian College, DeSales University and Cedar Crest College each welcomed some students back to campus in the fall and have seen no more than 20 students leave as of the end of September.
At Lehigh University, where coronavirus cases have spiked over the last two weeks, about 70 students have gone home, a spokeswoman said. Most are expected to return whenthe restrictions are lifted.
Kutztown also has seen more coronavirus cases than other Lehigh Valley schools, with 336 as of Thursday. The number of cases has largely dropped off in recent days, with 263 considered recovered.
University spokesman Matt Santos said more classes moved online than expected as the semester was getting
started, theorizing it might have been easier and cheaper for students to move back home and have their room and board reimbursed. Cases also started to climb in the first few weeks, so some students might have felt safer studying at home, he said.
Initially, about 40% of classes were offered online, but that number has since grown to about two-thirds of courses. About 25%-30% are hybrid and 5%-6% are in-person, hesaid. The school. has an enrollment of about 7,900 students.
He said the university, which planned a budget with $116 million in revenues, expects to weather the $3.5 million hit in room and board fees, but it’s too early to know exactly how it will make up the difference. He said the university reduced operating costs, cut back on supplies and saved on utilities.
Concern on and around campus
Students who remain on campus are concerned about the pandemic, but also have had time to weigh their options, said Kurtis Haynesworth, a senior who is a community assistant in one of the school’s dormitories and on the student government executive board.
“[Students] are still struggling with the changes due to COVID, but they’re trying to make the best of it with roommates and enjoy the campus environment before it gets cold,” he said.
Hesaid oneof the main reasons people decided to go back home was to save money on housing, with so many of their classes online.
He chose to stay because campus gives him a better learning environment.
“Being on campus makes me feel like I’m around my peers, other leaders, and basically I’m still trying to create an environment that motivates me and pushes me to be a better student,” he said.
Paul Berlet, a Kutztown student who didn’t return to campus this year, said he’s upset by how the school has reopened.
“It’s not a safe, healthy environment right now, especially when you factor in the lack of social gatherings, whichis good, andthe inability of the administration to actually keep these people safe,” he said.
Berlet, who is from Easton, is an organizer for Healthy Campus Bill of Rights, a group of students, staff and faculty who created a list of expectations that would constitute a “healthy campus,” such as a living wage for campus workers, becoming carbon neutral by2030, and increased access to mental health counseling.
Student body President Agostino D’Ancona disagrees, saying students feel safe. He returned to live off campus because it made doing his classwork a little easier.
“Thereare a handful of troublemakers here and everywhere else, but we have a great recovery rate,” he said.
Jenny Wallace, another member of the student government executive board, said she came back to Kutztown to live off campus. She said her home doesn’t offer a quiet, stable learning environment, and by being close to campus she can rent a laptop that runs better than her computer at home.
Some borough residents, however, are uncomfortable mingling with students dueto the high number of cases.
Marilyn Fox, a Kutztown resident who lives across the street from the university, said she and her husband stopped getting their groceries in town, instead going one town over to reduce the risk of contracting the virus. They’re both over 65 and her husband has health issues.
She started a facebook group, “Who’s to blame?” where community members discuss the spread of COVID-19. They hoped
to invite Kutztown University President Kenneth Hawkinson to a public forum, but thus far he has declined.
She wishes the school would take more safety measures and do more testing. She also mistrusts the data the school puts out.
Karen Feridun, another resident and member of the group, said the town has been lonely without all the students.
So when many came back for the semester, it was anxiety-inducing and exciting at the same time, she said.
“Suddenly the town was lively again,” she said. “The students I’d see on the street and the stores I was going to were all wearing masks. But there are students who are having parties, and I guess if you live in a different part of town where you’re right next to students, you might witness students weren’t as careful when associating with one another.”
Feridun said she knows people from out of town who are nervous to come to Kutztown. The number of infected off-campus students is also reported, and it makes residents hesitant to interact with them.
“If someone’s coming back to community, off-campus means a lot of different places,” she said. “What safeguards are there for those of us in town?”
She and other community members want more answers from the school.
Need for testing
Sheldon Jacobson, a University of Illinois computer science professor, said college-age students are going to act their age and won’t always behave perfectly.
But schools can conduct surveillance testing, in which students are regularly tested regardless of whether they have symptoms.
“With schools testing only people with symptoms or people they feel have been exposed, what you’re doing is seeing the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “With surveillance testing, you’re seeing the entire iceberg.”
Santos, the Kutztown University spokesman, said testing isn’t mandatory on campus, but officials took the temperature of everyone entering campus and asked them before they moved in to have a test. The test was optional.
Testing is also self-reported, he said.
Lehigh University, onthe other hand, halted in-person courses through Oct. 23 and pushed back the start of the spring semester after a recent spike in cases. The school, which is doing surveillance testing, reported 155 positive cases, with 52 found through surveillance testing. The number of cases spiked in the last two weeks, with 89 since Oct. 5.
Generally, colleges and universities around the country are struggling to see all infections, including in asymptomatic students, Jacobson said.
There were 90 coronavirus cases at Bloomsburg University less than two weeks into the semester. The school announced it would revert to mostly remote classes at the end of August. A total of 355 students tested positive, but the number of confirmed cases largely dropped toward the endofthe month, according to the school’s COVID dashboard.
A New York Times survey of more than 1,600 colleges and universities found at least 130,000 cases and at least 70 deaths since the start of the pandemic. Most deaths were reported in the spring and involved employees, not students.
For the most part, the risk of fatality for students is negligible, Jacobson said. The larger risk is that they could spread it to the community, and to older or more vulnerable populations.
“That’s wherethere’s a concern and you’ve got the town-gown relationship being strained,” Jacobson said.