In opening their campuses this fall, the presidents of Iowa State University and the University of Iowa have tried to perform a sort of balancing act.
They have had to appease politicians and trustees who demand face-to-face instruction while also protecting faculty, staff, and students who are at risk of getting and spreading a highly contagious disease. They have sought to meet the needs of those who want to be on campus, as well as the needs of those who show up because they must. And they have strived to choose between the comforts — and revenues — of a somewhat normal semester on campus and the disruption and financial losses that come with sending students home, as happened in the spring.
But the coronavirus is threatening that delicate balance: The University of Iowa and Iowa State have become homes to some of the worst outbreaks of Covid-19 in the nation. As of Monday, data from The New York Times count Ames, Iowa, and Iowa City as Nos. 5 and 13, respectively, on a list of metropolitan areas with the most new cases relative to their population over the past two weeks. Not all of the cases in either city are connected to the campuses. But data from Story County, where Ames is located, indicate that case-number tallies have closely tracked the university’s, suggesting that Iowa State’s cases may represent a large portion of the county’s overall caseload.
Leaders at the state’s two largest universities have said that the procedures on their campuses are sound and that students’ off-campus gatherings are to blame for the sharp rise in coronavirus cases. “We are now seeing the impacts of the large parties and gatherings that occurred the weekend before classes started,” Wendy Wintersteen, president of Iowa State, said in a letter to students. Bruce Harreld, president of the University of Iowa, has also called out local bars for not enforcing social-distancing and mask-wearing mandates on students. Both universities provided written responses to questions but did not make anyone available for an interview.
But a growing number of students and faculty members are calling for both institutions to take control of the situation and end face-to-face instruction for the rest of the term.
“Honestly, all of us are just tired of being scared and on guard,” said Jade Miller, a senior at Iowa studying biochemistry. Miller was particularly upset, she said, because she has been following the recommended protocols of washing her hands, wearing a mask, and social distancing. But a friend of hers has been in contact with another student who tested positive: “It was especially stressful the other day to think that I had been exposed, because I’ve been very careful.”
“The whole narrative from the university is ‘Just do these things, and you’ll be safe,’ but that’s a lie,” she said. “With thousands of people in close proximity, it’s a public-health nightmare.”
Mandates and Inaction
The sharp spikes in coronavirus cases in Iowa have far surpassed the numbers that have led other colleges to move in-person courses online for the semester, such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University.
In Ames, home to Iowa State, nearly 900 students and faculty members tested positive for the coronavirus through August 30, according to the university’s figures. Nearly a third of the space Iowa State prepared to isolate students who test positive is already occupied.
In Iowa City, more than 1,400 students and employees of the University of Iowa have self-reported positive coronavirus tests through September 4, according to the university, though it says just 112 students are isolated or quarantined on campus.
Officials at both universities stress that they are taking steps to prevent the further spread of the virus. For example, Iowa State plans to open a second testing site on campus and double the number of people involved in contact tracing, Angela M.Hunt, a spokesperson, said by email. After a public backlash, the university also reversed its decision to allow 25,000 fans to attend the football team’s first home game of the season next week.
The University of Iowa “is taking deliberate steps to reduce the risk of exposure to the Covid-19 virus, including working with health authorities to provide testing for all symptomatic individuals and asymptomatic individuals with a known Covid-19 exposure, and is coordinating with the Johnson County Public Health Department on contact tracing,” said a written statement from Jeneane M. Beck, a spokesperson.
Faculty members at both universities say the staff and administration are doing their best but have their hands tied by a lack of support from Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, and pressure from members of the Board of Regents, who are appointed by the governor.
“The people who have the power to do something for the collective well-being are refusing to act,” said John W. Jepsen, a Ph.D. candidate in history and president of the Campaign to Organize Graduate Students at Iowa, the labor union that represents teaching assistants.
The governor has refused to mandate mask-wearing statewide, Jepsen said, and the coronavirus-testing capacity in the state is inadequate. If students can’t get a test at the university’s hospital, they must drive 30 minutes, to Cedar Rapids, for the nearest state testing site, he said.
Reynolds has explained that she doesn’t believe that the government should impose a one-size-fits-all mandate for masks, and that such requirements are difficult to enforce, in any event.
Despite opposition from some state officials, Iowa City’s mayor did enact a mandate to wear face masks in public. The Ames City Council approved a similar measure after the spike in coronavirus cases at Iowa State.
The governor responded to the virus’s surge on campuses by ordering bars to close in six counties, including those where Iowa and Iowa State are located.
The Board of Regents, who oversee Iowa, Iowa State, and the University of Northern Iowa, “have forced the administrations to put economics before public health,” said Loren D. Glass, a professor of English at Iowa and president of the campus’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
“Now, everyone else is trying to deal with a lose-lose situation,” he said. The university is struggling to contain the number of cases, but — in keeping with recent advice from the nation’s top health officials — the students can’t be sent home to spread the virus into other communities.
Josh Lehman, a spokesperson for the regents, said in a written response that “the decision to move toward resuming in-person classes this fall was made collaboratively between board and institutional leadership, much as when instruction was moved to a virtual environment in March due to Covid-19.”
But the regents have also left little doubt about what they prefer. “We have been clear that our intention is to open our campuses this fall, including in-person instruction, open residence halls, on-campus dining, and campus activities,” the board’s president, Michael J. Richards, said at a June 4 meeting.
Mixed Emotions
Campus leaders, though, share some of the blame for the lack of preparation and for issuing messages that seek to deflect accountability, said Glass and other faculty members and students.
Joseph W. Yockey, professor of law and president of the Faculty Senate at Iowa, said that a surge in cases was not unexpected. “Given the notoriety that college towns have gained,” he said, “it’s reasonable to ask whether we were fully prepared for the situation.”
Iowa, for example, did not require students to be tested either before coming to the campus or when they arrived. The university has told students to be tested only when they show symptoms. A news account of an undergraduate who tested positive soon after arriving on campus, in August, detailed a series of missteps and confusion that resulted in the student’s requiring medical assistance.
The problem, say a group of activists in Iowa City, is that there is no way to eliminate the risk of illness when you put 30,000 students on a campus. More than 900 students and instructors at the University of Iowa pledged to participate in a sickout last week, according to organizers of the event, to protest the continuation of in-person instruction.
“The most frequent message we received was from students who told us that, despite taking all of UIowa’s recommended precautions, they contracted Covid-19 after only days back on campus,” the group wrote to administrators.
That’s what may have happened to Mason Zastrow, a junior at Iowa State and a member of the student government. Zastrow, whose roommate was in contact with someone who tested positive, said in an email that he now has a headache and fever, and is probably infected with the coronavirus.
The surge in cases at Iowa State signals that the university should shut down all in-person instruction, Zastrow wrote in an open letter to the administration.
Some faculty members and students, however, are satisfied with how things are going, and are confident that the measures in place are sufficient. Morgan Fritz, a junior at Iowa State and president of the student body, said she is taking one class in person but wishes she had more. “I would say that the majority of the spread is due to people’s personal choices in off-campus gatherings,” Fritz said.
Carol Faber, president of the Faculty Senate at Iowa State, said that the protocols work for her and her students but that her peers have a range of opinions. “I take the precautions, and I’m comfortable with it,” she said. “But some people don’t buy into the idea that any measures can help,” said Faber, an associate professor of graphic design. “Some people don’t feel comfortable with any solution.”
In Iowa City, the message from the administration is that some students and faculty members also want to attend classes in person. Students and staff members have a choice about being on campus and shouldn’t be forced to go online because others fear it isn’t safe, Harreld said in an email exchange with Hannah Zadeh, a senior studying psychology. “This is all about choice,” Harreld wrote. “Please do what is best for you, and please resist imposing your choice on others.”
But critics say that Harreld, who has struggled during his five years as president to gain widespread confidence on campus, is presenting a false choice, one that creates a health risk for people who have to be on campus, whether they choose to be or not.
“This whole attitude is that a public-health scare is a choice for people to participate in,” said Jonathan Lack, a doctoral student and teaching assistant in the department of cinematic arts.
“I have to go teach in person,” said Lack, who leads several discussion sections for a course taught by a tenure-track professor. “I’m being paid much less, and I have to go in and put myself and students at risk.”
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