COVID Policies Updated

Lauren Armstrong Staff Writer

get better while isolating with someone who is just as sick as you are? Why did the school get rid of the single rooms at the Fairfield Inn? These are questions that students want answered and they all raise extremely valid concerns during this on campus peak of the pandemic.

Students affected by the school’s decision are not pleased. A student, who would like to stay anonymous, stayed in her dorm while in isolation without a roommate present.

“I felt worried when I went into common spaces, particularly the bathroom, since I didn’t want to get others sick,” the student said. “It is not feasible to wear a mask when brushing your teeth or taking a shower.”

She was not happy while in quarantine and believed “our university should have done a better job preparing for the outbreak, as it makes sense that there would be an outbreak while everyone is traveling back to campus from a variety of places. I was not given an option other than staying in my dorm or traveling back home, which for students who live further away is not possible. I think the school should have kept the hotel as an option for students who need it.”

Freshman Marie Loroz had to isolate in her dorm in Stanford Hall, while her roommate was present in the room.

“[I] was constantly anxious about the different ways in which I was forced to interact and possibly expose others to Covid,” she said. “I had no other choice than to continue to use the communal bathrooms, but I hated feeling like I was putting others on my wing at risk. The school’s solution was to ‘wipe off anything I touched’ but that seemed inadequate to me.”

On Friday, January 27, 2023, an email from Kathleen J. Byrnes, the Vice President for Student Life, was sent to students. In this email, Byrnes addressed the new guidelines regarding on campus isolation. In the email she stated that it is allowed for students who are remaining in their assigned dorm rooms to “retrieve grab and go meals from the dining hall.”

Loroz was not happy with her isolation situation.

“Isolation in my dorm made me very uncomfortable, especially when the school informed me that it was okay to leave my room in order to go into the campus dining halls to receive food,” she said. “Even while wearing a mask and grabbing food to go, allowing students who are actively sick with Covid to enter the most crowded buildings on campus is ridiculous to me.”

Luckily, Loroz’s close friends were willing to drop off food to her room, yet she believes the school should have formed a system to deliver food to students who were isolated in their own dorm, in order to contain the spread of the virus.

Freshman Betty Dorsey was concerned about mixing students who have Covid with others who do not.

“I think it is kind of concerning that there are students who actively have covid and are in the dining hall at the same time as everyone else,” she said. “Of course, wearing a mask does help, but Villanova truly should have a better system for providing meals for those who are sick. Especially in order to stop the spread of this virus on campus and decrease exposure.”

Overall, Villanova’s response to the newest on campus outbreak has not been positively received and, with an increase of students getting sick every day, students are asking the school to do better.

MLK Day of Service

Lydia McFarlane Co-News Editor

serving food or rejuvenating churches, all activities meant to highlight Dr. King’s legacy and values.

With the semester starting on Tuesday, January 17th due to the holiday observing Dr. King’s birthday on the previous day, many students came back to campus a bit early to serve with friends and community members for the University’s sixteenth annual MLK Day of Service.

Senior Moroti Adewole reflected on her last year participating in the service day. She volunteered with the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority members and other nonmembers like herself that joined them in their volunteer efforts. They went to a site with a large warehouse where they organized donated classroom materials that the nonprofit, Teachers’ Teammates, would later give out to Philly teachers at a low price.

The nonprofit is focused specifically on helping teachers in Delaware County, PA mitigate the out of pocket costs that can often come with being a teacher. For example, many teachers end up spending their own money on basic classroom supplies such as pencils, notebooks, pens and notecards. Teachers decorating their own classrooms often spend their own money out of pocket to create a classroom space their students will enjoy. Teachers’ Teammates, the nonprofit Adewole and her volunteer group worked with, aims to assist these teachers financially.

“I 100% support the work that the organization is doing, especially since it reduces waste by taking in donations from several companies throwing out supplies and teachers get to shop at the site multiple times a year,” Adewole said. “Since supplies that teachers and parents provide from the beginning of a school year normally run out by December, this allows for an experience that enriches the lives of teachers and their students.”

Senior Rashel Batista was this year’s president of the MLK Day of Service planning committee. Batista along with other committee members had to reach out to sites, provide necessary supplies to the sites and match volunteer groups to the sites. This year was also the first time since the pandemic hit that the Day of Service took volunteers off campus.

“We were working hard to make our first off-campus MLK Day of Service since 2020 the best it could be,” Batista said.

Batista also reflected on her time volunteering with MLK Day of Service and being a part of the committee.

“My experience with the MLK Day of Service was amazing and it helped me in my journey,” Batista said. “I was the administrative assistant of the e-board and this year I was able to be the president. This experience has helped me become the leader that I am today and has helped me grow.”

Batista and other members of the committee reflected on the success of this year’s MLK Day of Service and want to encourage students to continue to volunteer. Batista wants other students to share her love for the day and for service in general as a way to give back.

“MLK Day of Service means to me that people care about making MLK Day a day ‘on,’ not a day ‘off’ to give back to community and take care of [one] another,” Batista said.