This issue originates from UMass but applies all across the country. Many universities have sent most students home but some students in various circumstances remain in their on campus housing assignments after being granted permission due to extenuating circumstances. Some of us can't leave because our home communities are under strict quarantine or lockdown, some students don't have reliable course access at home, but probably the majority of those who remain on their campuses are there because of safety concerns. Either they are considered higher risk from COVID-19 and are therefore safer to remain on campus which keeps them at lower risk, or because they live at home with someone at higher risk, and going home right now could prove dangerous for them. UMass is one of various universities that is about to alert the students remaining here that they will be consolidated to the same living area. One does not need to be a medical professional to know that this is a dangerous decision.

In spite of the best efforts of the community at large, many of us still necessarily must leave campus if only under limited circumstances, essential trips to grocery stores or to go pick up medications, etc. It is impossible for the campus community to be an enclosed system, even if we all rigorously adhere to the quarantine guidelines. For those of us who remain  it will only take one of us to potentially contract and carry the virus not just onto campuses but into in through the same doors that everyone else uses, the same elevators, the same bathrooms, the same dining halls, this is a disaster waiting to happen, the decision is not only bad, it's beyond reckless, particularly when it almost exclusively affects students who remain there specifically because they are more vulnerable to the COVID-19 Virus.

The issue doesn't stop there however, as even those of us remaining on campus are only able to do so through the end of the semester. That is only little more than a month away from the time this decision is being made, so in addition to the dangers of consolidation, if and when this virus comes into an on campus living community, when move out day arrives, the halls will become crowded with students moving their belongings out, parents and friends coming to help them, going in and out through those same doors and elevators as everyone else. All of this activity confined to one or two buildings will be as volatile an issue as the latest cruise ship situations. This careless decision is complete negligence and goes against every guideline set by state and federal government agencies regarding social distancing and safety precautions. 

Please join me in telling UMass and other universities to keep these students in place and to not place people at unnecessary risk for the sake of their own convenience.