Being stuck inside a dorm for two weeks is not what UConn freshman Aidan Toland imagined the college experience would be like. But he and dozens of others are doing just that after UConn alerted on Friday that Belden Hall, which houses 93 students, had been placed under quarantine because of a rising number of positive cases associated with the building.
This comes a week after nearby Eddy Hall also went under quarantine.
Under the precautionary quarantine, Toland said he and others cannot use common spaces, have to use a separate dining hall, and can only leave if it’s essential.
“Not being able to hang out with people and not being able to study together and do work together, that’ll be a little difficult,” said Toland.
Toland said he checks his temperature every day as a precaution but that he feels fine. He thinks the university has been handling the pandemic well.
UConn said since Friday, they’ve had three new on-campus positive cases and two new off-campus positive cases, with one of those students already in quarantine. The university reports it has about a 1.4% positivity rate for the residential population.
“I did have one girl on my floor who did get COVID at first, and they did quarantine the building at first, but it went pretty smoothly, I think,” said UConn freshman Melisa Edebali.
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Edebali said she’s also happy with UConn’s response to the pandemic. Despite her quarantine earlier this semester, she’s glad she chose to live on campus. That’s something Toland agrees with.
“I wasn’t expecting it to be this fun. It’s been really great. I’ve made a lot of friends here. Even with all the restrictions, we’re still doing it safely. Everything is good,” said Edebali.
“There’s more academic help here because you can use friends if you have problems with schoolwork or something, so I think I made the right decision by coming to campus,” said Toland.
The university said it continues to test students as part of its ongoing surveillance efforts, which includes randomly selected students.
