The reality of being back on campus: Gustavus Health Services helps students adjust to the new normal

After beginning the semester with a staggered student arrival, this week marks the first that the majority of Gustavus students are back on campus. Students have had to adjust to new COVID-19 campus guidelines and safety practices across campus.
“The College’s approach of having a staggered start where we slowly brought various groups of students back to campus has served us very well in allowing us to make adjustments as we go and make sure that we have all the mitigation strategies in place to ensure campus is as safe and as healthy as possible,” Director of Health Services Heather Dale said.
Given these changes, many students have experienced changes in how they take in-person classes.
“In my [biology] lecture… the room is all spaced out so there’s six feet of room or more for each person. For labs, there’s only a handful of people at a time… [you’re] just sitting in your designated spot and being really careful not to get too close to people,” Junior Korinna Hylen said.
Other students have experienced few in-person classes at all.
“I have one in-person class. It’s technically hybrid…I think the hardest part of it is teaching both online and in-person. There have been many times when [a professor] forgets about the online people because the in-person students are right in front of them, and there is that immediate connection,” Junior ROAR Team Member Kendall Harvey said.
Since the semester began, there have been numerous health and safety regulations put in place by the College to ensure the health of all students.
“Campus is pretty much what a normal school year would look like, but everyone is wearing masks indoors and outdoors, and there’s social distancing enforced. In classes all the desks are spaced out, in the Caf all the tables are six feet away,” Hylen said.
“We’ve been really impressed with the way the majority of students have handled themselves. I think in some ways, students have exceeded our expectations. There are instances where we forget, where we all forget…we all need kind and compassionate reminders so that we can all do the right thing and keep our campus safe,” Dale said.
The Gustavus ROAR Team is dedicated to reminding students how to best respect others and act responsibly while living on campus during this pandemic.
“I haven’t really had to tell anyone [to wear their mask]… I think one thing we could work on as a campus is social distancing and staying six feet apart. We kind of merge towards each other and gravitate towards standing in groups… as humans, we’re social creatures, we need to have that aspect, [but] we also need to stay safe,” Harvey said.
As more students have arrived on campus, members at Gustavus Health Services have noticed an increase in the amount of COVID-19 tests being performed.
“The first week we were back on campus, we did two tests… Last week, we did sixty tests. Certainly we’re seeing an uptick in testing, but that’s a really good thing. It means that people are identifying either when they have some sort of symptom or whether they have had any exposure to COVID-19,” Dale said.
“Obviously, you’re not going to be one-hundred percent safe with being in a global pandemic, but compared to other schools I do feel like Gustavus is handling it well and there are fairly low numbers… for everyone being back on campus, I am fairly impressed with the Gustavus community,” Harvey said.
Gustavus Health Services has been acting in accordance with the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) guidelines, but has been more proactive in testing.
Some clinics require that individuals have confirmed contact with COVID-19, or a certain number of symptoms before they can be tested, despite the fact that thirty to forty percent of people with COVID-19 can present as asymptomatic. By making testing more accessible on campus, Health Services is reducing the risk of more students contracting COVID-19.
“I feel very safe on campus, especially after I saw the email that there was currently only one positive COVID-19 case on campus,” Hylen said.
When campus first re-opened, a courier service was coming to campus at 5 p.m. every day to take COVID-19 tests and take them to Rochester, Minnesota, where they were processed at a Mayo Clinic. Test results were typically received within 48-60 hours after being taken.
Last week, Health Services switched to a courier pick-up at 2 p.m., and are now seeing test results come back within 24 hours or sooner, though they do still caution that test results may take one to three days depending on numerous factors at the Mayo Clinic lab where the tests are being run.
Gustavus is already making preparations for an increase in COVID-19 cases before the end of the year.
“As much as I think we’ve gotten more comfortable, or maybe everything has become more normalized for us, the virus is not going away. In fact, we’re seeing higher levels of it now in our state than at any other time during the pandemic…to me that means we just have to keep doing the things we’re doing. We can’t let our guard down,” Dale said.
Having adequate testing and being able to get tests results back quickly is vital to managing COVID-19 on campus. Members of the Gustavus community have been trained to conduct contact tracing so the school is not reliant on the MDH to do so.
“Last week, we had a patient test positive, we initiated our system here on campus and had that person in isolation, had the roommate in quarantine, and had other people contacted. On Sunday I got a text from the Minnesota Department of Health saying ‘Hey, we think this person is on your campus.’ I told them we had contacted them four days ago… I do feel like Gustavus… is trying to be really proactive and thinking about what stepping up a bit would look like,” Dale said.