The day after about 60 Middlebury community members published a letter in the Addison Independent asking Middlebury College to reconsider its reopening plans, President Laurie L. Patton delivered her own message: The benefits of having students return to campus outweigh the risks.
“There is no perfect solution to the Covid-19 reopening dilemma,” Patton wrote Friday in response to the letter, which includes local residents as well as college faculty and staff. “In our view, we will get farther if we try not to polarize on this topic.”
Residents of Middlebury are bracing for the arrival of an estimated 2,250 students that starts Aug. 18 with student leaders. The next two waves of arrivals are Aug. 26 and Aug. 28.
The students will move in and live under very strict guidelines, including an initial phase where none can leave campus. They have been asked to quarantine before arriving, and will be tested for Covid-19 when they arrive, seven days later, and then on a regular schedule thereafter. College officials presented their reopening plan to the Middlebury Selectboard on July 28. Among other things, school officials will visit all 100 of the students expected to be living off-campus – one of many things Burlington residents have requested of the University of Vermont. So far, UVM has refused.
In their letter, the Middlebury residents said the safety precautions don’t go far enough
The college is working with the town, the hospital and the school system, Patton said Friday.
“We have a highly collaborative relationship with state health officials and epidemiologists, with whom we consult weekly, and at times daily as needed,” she said. “We have robust isolation facilities and plans if they are needed. We have a health app that has been developed by nationally known technology experts specifically designed for Middlebury.”
She added that there are clear benefits to the students in having them return to campus.
“At Middlebury we know residential education reduces inequities for students and supports their mental health,” she said.
In their letter, the community members said the safety precautions don’t go far enough. They would like the school to switch to online-only classes, with just a few students on campus.
“Vermont has so far been spared widespread occurrences of the disease, but that situation would rapidly deteriorate if thousands of young people spill into the state from ‘hot spots’ all across the nation,” the letter said. “Many educational institutions with protocols as carefully developed as Middlebury’s have already seen how quickly local epidemics can develop and have wisely switched to all online classes with a bare minimum of students in residence. We urge Middlebury College to do the same.”
The group also said that if students do move in this month as planned, the college should test every person on campus every week and provide hazard pay for staff members whose jobs entail the greatest risk of contagion. Faculty have the choice of working remotely.
The writers said the students themselves had shown doubt about the expectations for social distancing and other behavior needed to suppress the virus, and added they were worried an outbreak would overwhelm the local hospital.
“… the hoped-for success of the college’s plan rests on flawed assumptions about the expected behavior of 18- to 22-year-olds,” the writers said. “We talk candidly with students all the time, and almost all uniformly agree that masks, social distancing guidelines, and travel restrictions simply will not be sufficiently followed.”
It’s clear that residents of the small town, population 8,500, expect an impact. One of the letter’s signers said her physician recently recommended that she have a procedure done immediately, before students return, “or wait a year until they are gone.”
Others are worried about the economic pain of keeping the campus nearly empty this fall.
“Our local merchants rely heavily on the college,” said former Republican Gov. Jim Douglas, who teaches at the college and lives in town. “Any events that bring large crowds to our community won’t be happening this year, but there’ll be 2,000-plus students around.”
Douglas called the college’s reopening plan “thoughtful and comprehensive” and noted that staff, faculty and students were expected to adhere to a health pledge, with serious consequences for violators.
Middlebury College is one of Addison County’s three largest employers, noted Rob Carter, the president of the Addison County Chamber of Commerce. The other two are the local hospital and UGC Aerospace Systems in Vergennes.
“I really feel for the faculty members,” said Carter. But he would like to see the students arrive as planned.
“I believe that the college is trying to look at yes, the health and safety of the community, but also the economic health of the community,” Carter said. “There are a lot of staff people, food service, cleaning, all of those people that they held onto even after classes closed in the spring. I don’t see how they would be able to keep them employed if the students don’t come back.”
Middlebury professor Michael Olinick, who signed the Aug. 13 letter, with his wife wrote a separate opinion piece calling for online learning only at the college. He said there are other staff members who declined to sign the letter.
“They fear retribution,” said Olinick, who teaches math. “They also fear the possibility of layoffs if the college doesn’t get a significant number of students paying room and board.” He added that an analysis has shown Middlebury’s $1 billion endowment is enough to help the college survive at least a semester without students paying room and board.
Many schools nationally have changed their plans in recent days and weeks, switching to online-only instruction. Middlebury senior Benjy Renton of New York is tracking the changes on his blog, which showed the number of institutions reversing course shot up on Aug. 12 as the U.S. reported more than 5 million cases of Covid-19. In its guidelines, Middlebury College urged students to buy insurance on their plane tickets in case plans change.
“I hope we get to the end of the semester and realize we made the right choice,” said Renton. “There is still a huge risk in bringing all students back to college. I don’t think we have the necessary testing that we would need to effectively contain and mitigate risk on campus.”
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