On the morning of January 7th, President Vincent Rougeau sent an email to the Holy Cross community in which he announced multiple restrictions for the beginning of the spring semester. These restrictions include a phased return to campus, universal virtual learning for the first week of classes, and allowing professors to pick whether they will teach in-person or online for the following week. Additionally, President Rougeau banned indoor dining for an unknown period of time, prohibited the wearing of cloth masks, and reiterated both the college’s booster requirement and the ban on attendance at sporting events. Many of these rather draconian measures are only predicated upon unfounded fear, and are not based in science.
For the entirety of last semester, President Rougeau and the COVID Core Team stated that they had “not seen evidence of cases being spread in classrooms” (Rougeau, Important: COVID-19 Rates, What You Need to Know and Do, 9/5/2021). This position was reiterated multiple times throughout the semester in numerous emails, addresses, and different communications from the administration. In fact, the administration often mentioned that in-person classes were some of the safest places to be on campus. In order to make them even more safe, the administration prohibited the wearing of neck gators and other similar facial coverings in classrooms. As a result, our classes were entirely safe, and there were basically no documented cases of COVID coming from them.
For this upcoming semester, the school has protected the student body with even more measures. They have banned certain less protective facial coverings like cloth masks, and have required students to be boosted in order to return to campus. Even though it is widely recognized that the Omicron variant is more transmissible than the Delta variant, it does not make sense that a more protected campus cannot safely have in-person classes. Are booster shots and highly protective masks not enough for our administration? Are these requirements not enough to prevent transmission in classrooms? If they are not enough to prevent transmission on January 24th, then why would they be enough to prevent cases on February 7th? If this is not sufficient to safely have in-person classes, which I am paying over $70,000 to have, then what is? Is the administration’s goal to have zero COVID cases on our campus? If so, we will be seeing online classes from the beginning of spring semester until our grandchildren graduate from Holy Cross. The administration has not done an adequate job explaining why these added measures are not enough to stop the spread of the Omicron variant on campus.
Leading experts, government officials, and even the administration’s favorite alumnus, Dr. Anthony Fauci, have stated that “it’s safe enough to get those kids back to school”. If our administration is not even following the measures promoted by Dr. Fauci, who is widely considered to be one of the most pro-restriction public health officials in the nation, and who Holy Cross has constantly held up as the beacon of public health messaging, then who exactly are we following? The students in Worcester’s parochial and public schools have safely been able to attend classes throughout this surge, and those students do not have a requirement to be fully vaccinated or boosted, and they can wear cloth masks. If these students are able to access in-person classes, then why are the fully vaccinated and boosted students on Mount Saint James unable to access the same thing?
Another aspect of the administration’s policy that does not make sense is that they are banning some of the safest activities that could occur on our campus — in-person classes — but they are seemingly going to allow some of the riskiest activities to occur — partying. The administration is going to allow students to come to campus to take online classes. Everyone knows that most students who come to campus will attend their online classes, but they will also party. The administration may try to ban students from entering other residence halls, or they may impose capacity limits in dorm rooms, but that did not stop students last year when we were all unvaccinated, and it will not stop fully vaccinated and boosted students this semester. If the college was unable to stop students from doing these things last year, then how would they be able to stop it this year when even fewer students are concerned about catching COVID.
Additionally, the school has closed indoor dining for the near future. There is no prominent public health official in our entire government who is even considering banning indoor dining. This is not recommended by the CDC, and all restaurants in the Commonwealth are open for indoor dining at full capacity. The administration should show us the evidence that proves that indoor dining is contributing to the spread of the virus. In two weeks time, I will be able to eat at any restaurant in the City of Worcester with my friends, but I will not be able to dine inside Kimball Dining Hall. The administration is bringing back the restrictions that we had last year. They know that these restrictions negatively impacted the mental health of the student body, and despite the fact that we are a campus of fully vaccinated and boosted students, the administration is treating the situation like January 2021. It is, frankly, absurd.
Over the last few days, I have come to the conclusion that the administration and large portions of the faculty are composed of people who are unnecessarily fearful of catching COVID. This is not an attack on our wonderful faculty, who I admire and have appreciated throughout my time here at Holy Cross. Additionally, I recognize that many faculty members have pre-existing conditions that place them at greater risk to the effects of COVID, even though they are fully vaccinated and boosted. However, if masks, vaccines, and boosters work, then they should not be afraid. These measures do work, and they worked last semester. Throughout the last semester, students were very good at following the directives of their professors — even those of us who are mask-weary — by wearing our masks in classrooms, and especially by wearing them when meeting with professors during office hours. If the administration truly believed that masks and booster shots worked, then they would not be afraid of having in-person classes for the first couple weeks of the semester.
At some point, the administration must accept that COVID is going to become an endemic disease that is not at all threatening to healthy, fully vaccinated, and boosted adults. They will also have to come to the realization that most individuals will probably catch COVID in the not-too-distant future, and they are only delaying the inevitable while worsening student mental health, the bonds of friendship, and our community’s cohesion. We cannot continue down the path of an approach that tries to stop the spread of COVID entirely. It is not possible. Many people, including the majority of the student population, have stopped caring about catching COVID, since the risk of severe disease and prolonged illness for fully vaccinated and boosted individuals is extremely low. While everyone admits that there are certain people who COVID will continue to pose a threat to — especially the immunocompromised — we cannot continue our current measures and fear-based decision making forever. At some point — and that point should be during this semester — we must understand that COVID is here to stay, and we have to drop the more unreasonable measures.
Throughout the pandemic, Holy Cross has often claimed to be leading with science and by example. However, I can safely say that Holy Cross’ current restrictions on fully vaccinated and boosted people are not leading with science and by example, rather they are leading by fear, and we are showing to the world that we are a campus run by hypochondriacs.