Campus Reopening - Royal Flush or Flunk?
Written on January 25th, 2022 by {"login"=>"jcbphc21", "email"=>"f20181005@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in", "display_name"=>"Journal Club, BPHC", "first_name"=>"Journal Club", "last_name"=>"BPHC"}The administration and Student Union of BPHC had taken us all by surprise, that being an understatement, when they announced their decision to call students back to campus in a phased manner, despite our sister campuses deciding otherwise. With the 3rd wave increasing rapidly, the administration has unquestionably taken upon a considerable risk and responsibility upon themselves. While initially the decision was mostly received positively by the student body, with the rising cases on campus, we can’t help but question if reopening the campus is a not so wise decision?
The pandemic has been going on for almost two years, and the end does not appear to be in sight, at least for the time being, so perhaps it is high time for the institute to take the risk of calling back students. We’ve already missed out on a massive chunk of our campus life, and most students are, in fact, more than ready to take up the gamble of staying on campus irrespective of the covid cases around them. While still highly contagious, the new variant Omicron is considered less severe, with symptoms similar to seasonal flu. So if all goes well and we somehow manage to survive the peak of the third wave, we might be able to have the semblance of normalcy we had last semester very soon. However, the administration has admitted that campus closure due to an outbreak is definitely on the cards. The question that arises now Is whether the institute is doing everything they can to prevent an outbreak?
Over 1200 students have been permitted to come to campus in a phased manner for a month, a good fraction of which have already arrived. However, the campus reopening hasn’t been sailing smoothly with a surge in covid cases on campus. Students set to come in the 28th-29th january slot have received mail telling them that their slot to report to campus has been postponed to 16th-17th of february, a decision that has been taken at the very last minute causing significant inconvenience to students. Students have already rescheduled their travel plans once before because of the phased reopening and are now being forced to reschedule for the 2nd time causing them to lose money in doing so on such a short notice. While the decision was understandable the first time, this inconvenience maybe could’ve been avoided for the second time if the institute would’ve taken a decision when cases began to rise on campus initially or maybe if better precautions were taken to prevent cases from increasing? How effective are the restrictions that have been implemented on the students and how seriously are protocols being followed?
An array of restrictions have been imposed on students, the most significant one being students being locked up in their hostels despite completing their mandatory quarantine period. The institute has gone to extreme lengths to avoid student gatherings, from providing packed meals to setting up food counters within the hostels. It is not to deny that the institute seems to be putting in a lot of effort to ensure the safety of students, but are they doing everything they can? They seem to be failing to provide students with any transparency on the number of positive cases on campus. In the mail that was sent to slot-2 students it was mentioned that there has been a significant increase in covid cases amongst the faculty and staff, particularly the hostel and mess staff, something the students currently residing on campus were completely unaware of. The only means for students to know about cases around them is by word of mouth amongst themselves or, in some cases, asking the warden personally. They’re not doing the bare minimum of tracking the possible students who have been in contact with someone who has tested positive and isolating said students for a minimum period to prevent the further spread of the virus. We have reached a stage where students are testing positive with them having no idea from whom or how they could have contracted it, which by the way, is the first sign of a possible outbreak. The only instance in which there was an official communication on the exact number of positive cases was a day before the students of the first slot were arriving stating 17 cases on campus, and the manner in which this information was given, appeared to be intended solely to scare students away from coming to campus. The administration seemed to be already regretting their decision to call back students with 2-3 cases being reported regularly, which has probably increased by now. Clearly, preventing students from going outside their hostel and giving them ‘slots’ to get their much needed outside time is just a superficial restriction. In reality, it won’t do much to stop cases from spreading, considering the absolute lack of contact tracing and transparency regarding the number of cases on campus. While students did accept the risk when they chose to come back to campus and have also signed a no objection form, they did not anticipate being confined to their hostels for such a prolonged period and the complete lack of communication from the administration. Just calling students onto a G-meet and giving them approx numbers once every few days doesn’t help; students need to be made aware every single time a student tests positive, stating which hostel and wing said student is from to ensure necessary precautions can be taken from their end as well. Temperature and spo2 levels should be checked on a daily basis, something that was promised but plainly isn't occurring. It cannot be denied that positive cases were expected to arise on campus considering the state of the country right now and that there’s a high chance of contracting the virus wherever you are, be it on campus or not. However, the campus has limited facilities and can only manage to contain a certain number of cases beyond which they will be forced to close the campus. With the sudden decision to postpone the campus arrival dates for slot-2 students and a very vague message on the surge in covid cases, will the situation improve in the coming weeks?
If waiting for the cases to peak before calling back students could prevent a possible outbreak on campus and lead to a smoother reopening, something the Pilani and Goa campus seemed to have considered, maybe Hyderabad campus should have done the same too?
While we laud the efforts taken by the administration in their attempt to curb the rising cases, it appears to be a continuous uphill battle.