We are writing on behalf of a disappointed UA community in regard to the University’s response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

With the upcoming spring break, we can assure you that many students will not be following the University system’s so-called “advisory” in regard to non-essential domestic travel. The price of plane tickets has been slashed dramatically, and students have been taking note and booking domestic flights or even international ones. Many students have travel plans to areas such as California, Washington, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida...the list is endless. Additionally, students may be skipping the leisure trip and going home to see family and loved ones in these areas as well. There are thousands of young adults who attend this University - there is an extremely slim chance that someone does not bring it back here after the week-long spring break. It is not fair to us as students to have our learning interrupted like this when we can take action now, rather than someone unknowingly contracting this virus and bringing it back here. Then what do we do from there?

There is absolutely no harm in the University being proactive and cautious in response to this outbreak. For example, the University of Notre Dame (among a list of MANY schools who have responded responsibly and informatively to this pandemic) temporarily suspended their operations, citing that “Although there are currently no reported cases of the coronavirus at Notre Dame, the probability that it will spread to our region is high. Notre Dame will take several steps to reduce the likelihood of transmission of the virus”. That is a response that a university valuing the health and safety of its students gives. There are immunocompromised students who are genuinely scared of this virus, and why should they have to be further punished should someone bring the virus back over spring break? There are students who will be traveling to states and countries that are in states of emergency or at level 2 or level 3 in regard to the virus. There is also no way to monitor a campus of 40,000 public university students and make sure they are all following enforced guidelines when it comes to self-quarantine. Look at what happened in the first semester on this very campus that made state headlines, where a marketing professor was wrongly suspended because a student - who did not even attend school here - was able to walk into Alston Hall and break the rules in regard to drinking alcohol in a university building. Anyone can walk into a building here with the virus and we wouldn’t even know. How can you ensure that all students who may potentially intercept the virus are following self-quarantine protocol? The answer is, you simply can’t. Many diagnosed patients in other states have already broken their quarantines and further put the country in danger.

The school’s use of threats and intimidation to prevent spring break travel is unprofessional and unwarranted. The “advisory” to avoid domestic travel is already and will not be adhered to. In a statement, the nursing school has said in a statement to students, “During spring break, if you travel or pass through a high risk area (which may not be designated as such when you leave) and are exposed during the break, you may have to be isolated upon return. If you miss clinical because of that, those clinical days will need to be made up. We only have the capacity to support a very limited number of makeup days. So if you were to need more than that, you could end the semester with an incomplete. We definitely appreciate the need to get away for a few days of R & R; and understand the implications of non-refundable travel plans. Therefore, we can not give you specific advice as to whether you should or should not proceed with your personal travel plans”. The Capstone College of Nursing has warned nursing students that should they fall sick or travel, they will be in danger of failing the semester’s clinical evaluations should they need to be in quarantine. This is dangerous and promotes the act of students breaking quarantines in order to go to class to save their grades. This is unfair to us as paying students to be threatened with failing because we are required by the State of Alabama Board of Health to quarantine. This is yet another example of the school acknowledging the risks of this virus, but deciding not to act and waiting for something to happen rather than proactively defusing the potentially dangerous situation.

To put it bluntly, the University’s response up to this point feels irresponsible, negligent and purely unacceptable. The students in this community feel as though you have turned your back on us. To say that you value our safety and our health and then not proactively and cautiously respond to what is now a World Health Organization classified pandemic does not feel as if you care about the safety and health of the campus and community.

The spread of this virus to the campus but also the community residents of Tuscaloosa feels inevitable, especially after spring break travel. We would hope and encourage the University that we love and respect so much to please do better in their response.