“I felt like an after thought”: Elmhurst students recounts campus quarantine experience

The last thing Jane Doe expected her senior year was to quarantine in a West Hall isolation room with her roommate.

After testing negative for COVID-19, Doe, who asked to stay anonymous for the reporting of this story, spent a week in quarantine after being exposed to the virus from her roommate who tested positive on Sept. 2.

West Hall has one wing on the first floor and, according to Doe, at the end of the wing hallway, two rooms are reserved for quarantining. The rest of the rooms in the wing are occupied by students. 

The experience, as Doe recalls, felt “nerve-racking.” Doe was given 10 minutes to pack necessities such as clothes, bedding, and her shower caddy before being taken to her isolation room by Kenneth Parcel, Assistant Director of Campus Safety. 

“It [the quarantine experience] definitely made me feel like I was an afterthought,” said Doe.  

When Doe walked into the room, she noticed the suite did not provide them with any toiletries, trash cans, or cleaning supplies for the week. 

“We walked in to no toilet paper, no soap, nothing to clean with,” said Doe. “Even just doing my own wipe down, because I took my own wipes, my wipes were dirty.”

On the EU website, under the COVID-19 section, students are urged to pack an emergency bag in the event they test positive, listing supplies for them to pack.

However, the list does not inform students that they would be responsible for providing their own antibacterial soap and toilet paper.

Doe felt the room had not been cleaned in preparation for students to quarantine, noting one of the first things she saw was an old sock on the floor.

The Office of Housing and Residence Life did not respond to The Leader’s request for comment. 

For the week Doe was quarantining, all of her meals were delivered by Chartwells. Doe has an issue with the system in place for food deliveries.

Bill Duro, Director of Dining Services, explained that the students are to call in to the Frick Center Dining Hall and request their meals based off the menu available for that day and that the selected delivery time “will be honored as much as possible.”

Throughout the week Doe ordered her food and she explained that it would take around an hour and a half to be delivered to her room. Doe would have to wake up at 8 A.M. in order to get her breakfast to her by 10 A.M.

“I’m waking up early to make the time to wait a full hour to get my food,” Doe explained. 

She felt there could have been a better system in place to deliver the food more timely, noting that students may have health conditions that require them to eat at certain times and waiting could hinder their health. 

In the suite, there were also no microwaves or refrigerators to heat up or store perishable foods for students, which bothered Doe. 

“If they [students in isolation] order something now in anticipation of being hungry later, how are they going to keep it warm?” Doe said. “Food gets bad and that can potentially be another issue if you’re eating yogurt that you ordered yesterday in hopes that it’s still a little cool.”

EU dorm halls do not allow for students to have microwaves in their dorm, but are able to use the communal microwaves on each floor. 

However, since Doe was in isolation, she was confined to her suite and was not allowed to leave her vicinity. 

“I tried my best to respect the process but it was really trying at times,” said Doe. 

After spending a week in quarantine, being released on Sept. 9, Doe was very upset with how administration had aided her throughout the “nerve-racking time.”

Doe mentions that the only person who consistently checked in on her and her roommate were Tim Gatesman, a campus security officer, and Duro telling them “to feel better and be careful.” 

During her stay, Doe emailed housing and “demanded” to be placed in a different room because she felt she had lost out on a lot of social events she planned over the summer due to her isolation, even though she was not COVID-19 positive. 

Doe felt there was ample time to situate her in a new room after she requested a transfer, but she noted there had been no indicator about what would happen to her post-isolation. 

“There was no real communication with me telling me what was going to happen after this,” said Doe. “It was kinda like ‘she’ll forget about it,’ ‘she’s just upset in the moment’ [but] I’m not upset in the moment, I’m upset in general.”

When she did not get a response from housing, she forwarded her message to President Troy VanAken who put her in contact with Phil Riordan, Dean of Students.

“[Phil was] very caring under the eyes of his boss,” Doe said, but she noted that he “fell back” after VanAken was out of the picture, recalling that she would not hear back from him.

Riordan did not respond to The Leader’s request for comment. 

Doe feels that the school could have been better prepared to handle students quarantining on campus. 

“You would think these students would be number one priority because it is such an important issue sweeping the nation right now,” said Doe. “After all it’s [COVID-19 on campus] not going to stop after me and my former roommate.”