Just 12 days before students were supposed to arrive back on campus and commence the 2022 Spring semester, Davidson College emailed the student body informing them that they were not allowed to return until January 28th at the earliest. Claiming that postponing student arrival and administering classes asynchronously for the first week would help mitigate the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the school’s decision was met with immediate backlash. Davidson’s Core Covid Response Team writes in the email that pushing back the start of the semester will give students “extra time” to get booster shots and schedule a pre-arrival test. However, as student responses suggest, it is not “extra time” that students will gain from this postponed arrival, but rather increased troubles and anxieties surrounding flight and travel change costs, the limited number and costliness of antigen tests, the stress and inadequacy of virtual learning, the meal plan and housing expenses that will not be refunded—all of these stressors coinciding with an increase in the overall tuition during this past school year.

On December 21st, Davidson sent out an email informing the student body that a COVID booster shot and a negative COVID test would be required for returning students. Given the fact that this email was sent out last month with information concerning the booster and test requirements, it appears unclear and inconsistent why Davidson’s latest email states that the reason for postponing the semester is to give students “extra time” to complete these already-known requirements. In addition, the December email failed to state that PCR and at-home tests would not be accepted, leading some students between the December and January emails to purchase PCR tests in anticipation of fulfilling this requirement—costing them upwards of $90, according to one student’s comment on Davidson’s Instagram page. This sudden change only magnifies the financial burden upon the individual student. COVID-19 will not “dissipate” over the course of one week, and a postponed arrival will not profoundly alter the impact of the Omicron variant upon the 99% vaccinated and boosted student body.

As this past school year has demonstrated, Davison College’s COVID guidelines are founded on baseless and contradictory claims and reasoning. As a petition in the Fall semester indicated, Davidson Students did not understand why the school allowed college-run events to occur, like the annual Cake Race in which more than 500 un-masked students participated, but strictly, and often forcefully, prohibited much smaller social weekend gatherings among the students.

This petition hopes to give voice to the plethora of student complaints that emerged in response to the administration’s untimely change, and also to shed light on the ineffectiveness of a 10-day postponement. It is clear that the impact of Davidson’s decision will harm students more than help them, especially those who are marginalized. This petition seeks to reverse the school’s decision, or, in the least, to be guaranteed financial assistance or the assumption of individual costs by the school to account for the impacts caused by this sudden change.