On Wednesday, WSBT-TV broadcast a report that included an interview with an anonymous Notre Dame student who tested positive for COVID-19. The student provided a damning description of every step of the process from the moment she woke up sick to the sterile conditions of the apartment she is being quarantined in. “Scary” and “stressful” are among the words she’s used to describe her experience.
A major university like Notre Dame has to do better than this. It had more than enough time to figure all of these logistics out, and we’re getting a story that makes COVID-19 testing and accommodations seem more like an appointment with your cable company or waiting at the DMV. Nothing is being handled in a caring or timely matter.
COVID-19 patients at Notre Dame are being treated like cattle. The university has an obligation to protect its students no matter how many people are infected by the virus. Many college students’ entire worlds take place on their campus, so where else are they supposed to go to get tested, treated and quarantined? This is when individuals become numbers, and that’s not good.
It’s almost as if Notre Dame is hovering its finger over the button that will send its on-campus students home, so it figures, “We’re kicking everyone off soon anyway, so do we really need to fix everything?” The simple answer to that is we are living through the greatest crisis in our lifetime, and there’s no guarantee you’ll be making that call. Even if you do, you have to properly and efficiently care for your sick students in whatever time they still have in South Bend. If you’re not, why is anyone even allowed at the university right now?