Students (m)asking for change to Chapman’s spring COVID-19 protocols
Senior political science major Daniel McGreevy (pictured) requests changes be made to the university’s masking protocols through a change.org petition he created. EMILY PARIS, Staff Photographer
As the return to in-person learning for the spring semester grows increasingly imminent, Chapman students are expressing concerns toward the university’s current COVID-19 policies. Many of these reactions have taken the form of petitions and Instagram posts addressing specific aspects of the protocols that students and student-led organizations would like to see changed.
At the start of interterm, senior political science major Daniel McGreevy created a change.org petition asking Chapman President Daniele Struppa and Jerry Price, the Dean of Student Affairs, to change the types of masks that would be permitted on-campus. The petition is backed by almost 340 signatures as of Feb. 6.
“Providing students & staff with access to higher quality masks will allow us to return to campus safely and provide an additional layer of precaution on top of the testing and contract tracing steps being taken by Chapman,” the petition states. “At the beginning of the fall semester, we saw how fast breakthrough cases could spread through campus — we cannot afford to be caught off guard again.’
A couple days after its creation, the university sent out a mass email focusing on the revised masking protocol, stating that Chapman community members must wear either surgical masks or KN95 masks. Previously, cloth masks, bandanas, scarves and neck gaiters had been deemed acceptable.
“In my conversations with both (Struppa and Price) in the past, I feel like in voicing other concerns, they’ll say ‘Oh yeah, we heard you,’ but we don’t often see change,” McGreevy said. “So I was pleasantly surprised when, shortly after launching the petition, they announced the policy that they were going to be requiring medical-grade masks or higher in the classroom and making those better masks accessible on campus.”
Chapman’s COVID-19 protocols for the spring semester are identical to those implemented for interterm. Chapman students were required to submit proof of a COVID-19 booster shot or declination form by Jan. 31, and they also had to get tested twice the week before classes resumed in-person instruction.
McGreevy also said he did not feel that only testing Chapman students during the first week of interterm and the spring semester would be sufficient, especially as a December 2021 study has suggested that rapid antigen nasal swab tests are not as effective as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) throat swab tests at detecting the Omicron variant.
Rather than having students get tested every week, McGreevy suggested breaking the student body up into groups based on their last names and having a different group get tested each week.
“It could be students (with) last names A through G get tested one week, and then the next six last names get tested another (week),” McGreevy said.
Chapman Activists Coalition (CAC) published an Instagram post Jan. 19 detailing concerns like the lack of remote or hybrid learning options for students and making masks and COVID-19 tests more accessible to students. The post was a collaborative effort with three other student-led organizations: Asian Pacific Political Alliance, Ethnic Studies Society and the Musicians of Color Association.
Fiona Quilter, a senior art major, agrees with the points brought up in the CAC Instagram post; specifically, the current lack of a remote or hybrid learning option for students.
“I wish that the one thing Chapman would add to their COVID-19 policies for the spring is (a) mandatory hybrid option that would just allow students to stay at home if they really feel that they need to,” Quilter said. “That can be a personal choice that everyone makes, and it doesn’t force students who want to come in-person to stay on Zoom.”
Quilter, who is also a member of Chapman’s Pi Beta Phi sorority, also said she feels the timing of the testing requirement was “horrible” since this semester’s sorority recruitment was held partially in-person.
“(Recruitment consisted of) hundreds and hundreds of girls, and we were all in-person,” Quilter said. “We did take multiple group photos; every single member with masks off. Girls were also told to put their masks on during our large mid-day ceremony, and almost everyone had (their masks) off.”
While Quilter said she felt this was a personal choice for people to make, she also felt “uncomfortable” that the sorority members were not required to retest before starting their classes.
“If there was to be an outbreak, no one would know until (the following) week when we’re already in-person,” Quilter said. “Chapman should have had two weeks virtual so that we would know if there was a COVID-19 outbreak post-recruitment, which is only going to show up around Monday or Tuesday of (the following) week.”
Quilter conceded that while pandemic and COVID-19 testing fatigue appears to be a recurring theme within the Chapman community, the solution ultimately lies in the university increasing their distribution of tests to the student body and stricter enforcement of the masking policy.
Kristin Kumagawa, a junior communication studies and public relations double major, reiterated a similar sentiment; though she acknowledged COVID-19 testing kit shortages are a national issue, she does not believe the testing center should be turning away individuals. Instead, she suggests Chapman provide at-home tests that students can administer themselves — something that the university had done last year.
“By having us in-person, it is a risk and there’s no record of when you were tested,” Kumagawa said. “It would be a lot more comforting to know that you can get tested and know that resource is available to you.”
Kumagawa’s views also align with Quilter’s in terms of their mutual desire for a hybrid learning option, which Kumagawa emphasized would be extremely helpful in the case of a potential surge in cases — as seen in September 2021 — upon students returning to in-person learning. She also suggested faculty livestream their classes, which could also be recorded and accessed by students retroactively.
“(Offering hybrid learning) is also a lot more disability inclusive — like if someone is unable to come to school because of a disability, or because they just have circumstances where they can’t make it in-person,” Kumagawa said. “It’s a lot more accessible if there is an online option.”
She would also like to see the daily health screenings getting checked at every classroom instead of only the major buildings like the Leatherby Libraries or the Argyros Forum.
Despite this, Kumagawa said this spring’s COVID-19 protocols are an improvement in comparison to those implemented for the fall semester. Previously, students were required to submit proof of their vaccination or a declination form, and masks were required for indoor settings — much like this spring.
However, what the university lacked entering the fall semester was a testing requirement for students to complete prior to accessing campus.
“You can see that we’ve learned from the mistakes of (the) fall and how it causes an uptick in cases, because we didn’t know what to expect yet,” Kumagawa said. “From what we’ve seen after that initial rise at the beginning of the school year, there’s been more precautions taken, and I think that we’ve managed to hold in-person school without any large consequences.”
