Community Must Be More Vigilant Regarding COVID

Lucius Bryant ’22

Staff Writer

As the school begins to tighten its regulations on quarantine procedure, the evidently overlooked circumstances where one could be exposed to COVID are becoming increasingly apparent. The fear of exposure has never been higher after last week’s emails from the administration addressing the college regarding the current state of virus control. This comes, ironically, after the Tripod published an opinion piece about how well the return to “green” had proceeded. Guess who wrote that one.

I think by now the students, faculty, and staff have a firm grasp that any sort of unregulated action could result in negative and perhaps irreparable consequences. The state of emergency on Trinity’s campus is directly a result of the number of confirmed cases, after all, and the more positive tests that go through Ferris, the worse the situation will get for everyone involved here.

So, in an attempt to limit as much unnecessary contact, both indirect and direct, I propose the Tripod take the initiative in prioritizing the health of the students and faculty of the college by ceasing all print editions of the newspaper and its articles. 

This year, the Tripod has published four print editions and two online. The print editions are distributed around campus to different buildings and left for anyone to take a notice. For the past three weeks, I’ve watched the pile of newspapers grow higher and higher. It seems no one wants to handle any object that they have not personally witnessed being sanitized in rubbing alcohol by a professional viral expert with hands made of Purell. This same fear is why we have been ordered to remain in our own rooms and advised away from any social gatherings whatsoever. 

Though there are palpable differences in behavior and schedule with the constituents of the college, there is still glaring oversight and ignorance when it comes to removing all possibility of infection (just walk to Ferris or Mather or Vernon Street to see for yourself if you haven’t already). In fact, just this weekend, infected students have been placed in residences where healthy students already live. Sounds like a bad idea, but I am certainly no virologist so who’s to say.

I think the largest oversight when it comes to keeping the virus away from campus is the lack of restriction of visitors like family and friends, and delivery vehicles from the likes of Uber Eats and DoorDash. When the school set up its mandatory quarantine when returning to campus, the idea was to create a bubble where if the virus did pop up, we could have some control on the spread of things by limiting contact with things from outside campus. A college already provides enough for one to sustain themselves without outside help. Though I think there is next to nothing that can keep students from having their friends from high school visit or their parents driving through, we may be able to restrict contact with delivery services to specific places on campus. 

Any capacity of limiting oversight when it comes to infection helps. If not for reducing the risk, then for setting a precedent that the situation is not where it needs to be, and we have the ability to change it. The students can make the most behavioral difference than others here. All of us would prefer to go back to simpler times, and the only way that would be possible is through proactive measures, and through looking through the dirt to see what lies beneath. We must try to make it a priority to not be careless when our futures are at stake.