An Open Letter to Santa Clara’s Administration

It has been less than three weeks since Santa Clara opened its doors to on-campus students, and COVID-19 cases have already seen a sharp increase. On April 1, only a few days after 500 students moved into the residence halls, the COVID-19 positivity rate sat at 0.5%. Test results from April 9 showed 104 positive results, indicating a 3.2% positivity rate. 

As of publication, Santa Clara considers 44 of these cases to be “active,” meaning that 44 students who have tested positive for COVID-19 have had close contact with Santa Clara community members in the past 14 days. These numbers are likely higher, with dozens more students quarantining in their dorm rooms due to recent exposure. 

I happen to be one of those students placed in quarantine right now. I was ordered to quarantine after one of my suitemates tested positive after attending several fraternity parties and pledge events during the first week of the quarter.

Santa Clara’s failure to stop off-campus parties and reduce fraternity activity is its own issue, and I realize that the administration has little power in regulating what happens beyond the borders of the campus. However, Santa Clara does have control over its response to on-campus outbreaks. 

This response, in itself, has been completely uncoordinated and chaotic.

Simply put, Santa Clara was not prepared to deal with this many positive cases so quickly. Given the large outbreak in January, even without students living on-campus, the university’s lack of foresight is even more disappointing. My quarantine contact said herself that they were neither prepared for nor expecting this many positive tests to come back so quickly. 

The university’s lack of preparation for such a large outbreak has led to a painfully slow response to COVID-19 cases for on-campus residents. It took about two days from when my suitemate tested positive for him to get moved to the isolation dorm and for me to get my order to quarantine.

In that time span, we had no support from the university. We received absolutely zero communication on what to do. We were completely left in the dark as the university was scrambling to handle the surge. This left a two-day span in which I was supposed to quarantine but couldn’t because I had to provide meals for myself and my COVID-19-positive suitemate. That was two unnecessary days in which I would be exposed to someone with COVID-19, and two unnecessary days of contact with other members of the Santa Clara community.

Now, currently quarantining, things are not much better. Communication is still slim to none, unless I directly reach out to my contact with a question. It is now also clear that Santa Clara has no set protocol to quickly and regularly test students who are placed in quarantine in order to catch new, potentially asymptomatic, cases quickly.

I feel betrayed by Santa Clara. I knew it would be a risk to move on campus and get randomly assigned suitemates—both of whom are rushing fraternities—but, despite personally following Santa Clara’s COVID-19 guidelines, a lack of university enforcement of these guidelines, and a fumbled response to the surge in cases has rendered my attempts at safety useless. I deserved a much more coherent and timely response from Santa Clara in the case of a massive outbreak like this one.

To show commitment to the health and safety of its students, faculty and staff, action needs to be taken at a high level, right now. The university has been lax on enforcing COVID-19 rules even after facing pressure for their lack of action in the midst of the fraternity-tied outbreak in January. That needs to change. 

The rules that Santa Clara created to curb the spread of COVID-19 need to be enforced. In addition to simple rule enforcement, Santa Clara needs to bolster its isolation and quarantine protocols and increase staffing for the program. 

If action is not taken, I would not be surprised if another surge like this one happens again later in the quarter.