1 10 5 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/51613/archive/files/9602eccea3dad4b9b6e5430a9bc18546.png?Expires=1787788800&Signature=PIcKoQVyGoXhtUOeFALJqfo%7EqeTVOblML3jtAQmUXG3zdh9dvtTr1P7wQMiz%7E1LOQ9MFrdmik0z9ln2o0BF562cAol1L3wtlOLE5jGW6dSkgtMI2XZIp7WRDzO%7EUUat6a81BUw--OIchTTs1S6D%7Exzh2Yapgb2KlPw3wmpTeIcEboYFrQ-b-HOpegy0mrfOSRE-bUp-2jtCJGIHJT0lMgBvRjfantI31Ei9RboQVhFQrEJSgIouVWns3LA5ubjDCOIIkQzN-A9PmHYUPlqeE46WxaDkuSHp8z1IRjrgsESAgFrleP7xk8t0YsVU1RkdoltW4jritk7XGDFXfTmhoRg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 3df4fb7c36d00e2ba76224d2f29c7498 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Brown Daily Herald Description An account of the resource This collection consists of articles published by the Brown Daily Herald, the undergraduate daily student newspaper, in regards to COVID-19 at Brown. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document As part of the University’s “phased approach” to undergraduate instruction and students’ return to campus announced Aug. 11, most undergraduate students will not be allowed on campus until late September, if at all. But, for the undergraduates granted permission to reside on campus, those living off campus on College Hill and graduate students, The Herald has compiled information on the details of returning to campus as well as updates about on campus resources, which can be found here. Key takeaways Students returning to Providence before Labor Day must complete an online education module and sign a commitment to follow health and safety requirements. During stage 1 of the quiet period, students living on campus will only be able to leave their dorms for meals and testing, while off-campus students will be expected to quarantine away from campus. In stage 2 of the quiet period, on-campus students will have more freedoms, but will not be allowed to interact with off-campus students in Providence. Students will be sent an email with information to set up the symptom tracking tool and schedule their first tests on campus. Arrival on campus All students who will be living in Providence, whether on or off campus, will have to complete an “online education and prevention module” and sign a commitment to follow the University’s health and safety requirements. The commitment, which can be found on the Healthy Brown website, consists of 12 clauses and a statement of understanding. “Because the University cannot guarantee a campus free from the risk of becoming infected with COVID-19, I understand that my failure to follow these health and safety requirements increases the risk that I may become infected with COVID-19 or infect others, and that I or other members of the community may experience severe illness including personal injury and death as a result of becoming infected with COVID-19,” reads one line of the commitment. An individualized link to the COVID-19 online education module was sent to all students planning to return to Providence at the end of the month today, Aug. 21, coinciding with the deadline to request an early return. The deadline to complete the module is Wednesday, Aug. 26, according to the email. Students returning to live off-campus had to indicate their date of return on the Housing Questionnaire by 11:59 p.m. Aug. 20. Those students, as well as those returning to live on campus, will receive a COVID-19 test on Aug. 29 or close to their arrival. The University is also purchasing additional health supplies for distribution, and is ensuring that its supplies will be adequate to provide three cloth masks, two 4-ounce tubes of hand sanitizer and one container of sanitizing wipes to every student, faculty, and staff, according to the Healthy Brown website. Quiet period All students living on and off campus will have to adhere to a 14-day quiet period — essentially a quarantine — in order to eliminate the risk of spread from pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic students. The quiet period will be split into two phases. Stage One In the first stage, on-campus students will be isolated within their residence halls. They will only be permitted to leave to receive a COVID-19 test or pick up dining hall meals delivered to designated spots on campus, according to the Healthy Brown website. Students living off-campus will be expected to quarantine in off-campus housing in compliance with Rhode Island Department of Health rules. RIDOH notes that while all people arriving in Rhode Island are advised to quarantine, people traveling from one of these 33 states with a positivity rate of over 5 percent or out of the country are required to quarantine for 14 days. College students are exempt from the RIDOH provision allowing visitors and returning residents to “test out” of a two-week quarantine with a negative COVID-19 test obtained within 72 hours prior to arrival, according to the Healthy Brown website, meaning that if a returning student tests negative on arrival, they will still need to complete a two week quarantine. RIDOH’s “Guidance for Colleges, Universities and Boarding Schools” notes only that “students and their families and friends traveling from countries outside of the US or a hot spot within the US must quarantine for 14 days within the state.” Off-campus students will not be allowed on campus in any capacity during the quiet period with few exceptions, including receiving a scheduled COVID-19 test, visiting Health Services or completing University-approved laboratory work. On-campus students are discouraged from leaving their rooms for anything other than the essentials, according to Vanessa Britto, associate vice president for campus life and executive director of health and wellness for the University. “As challenging as it is, we really do need people to not gather while in residence halls and to limit their movement beyond the essentials — bathroom, meal pick-up, etc.,” Britto wrote in an email to The Herald. “This will help us minimize exposures during the quiet period.” All students returning to Providence will be tested twice during phase one of the quiet period — once upon arrival and again after four or five days. “Low infection rates in the second-round test will allow Brown to move to Stage 2,” on the phased reopening model, according to the Healthy Brown website. Stage Two Stage 2 of the quiet period will bring some more flexibility to those living on-campus — students can exercise outdoors (on-campus only), have small gatherings (five people wearing masks or adequately social distancing) and order contactless food delivery to residence halls. Off-campus students will still have to comply with the RIDOH-mandated 14-day quarantine, and will not be allowed on campus save the few exceptions also applicable during stage 1. Students residing on campus are not permitted to interact with students living off campus during stage 2. During stage 2, all students on meal plans will be allowed to pick up grab-and-go meals from dining halls, including off-campus students. The Healthy Brown website notes that the University may loosen or tighten listed quiet period restrictions based on the results from arrival testing. Failure to adhere to the quiet period regulations and the University’s COVID-19 Campus Safety Policy, issued Aug. 7, will be a violation of the Student Code of Conduct, which could result in sanctions including removal from campus or academic suspension. “We are relying on each member of the community to be fully engaged in holding each other accountable and in providing guidance and support around the public health guidelines,” wrote Yolanda Castillo-Appolonio, senior associate dean of students and director of student conduct and community standards, in an email to The Herald. Testing Most University students returning to Providence — including all undergraduates — will be considered “high-contact,” and will undergo asymptomatic testing for COVID-19 twice per week, The Herald previously reported. To facilitate the details of testing and symptom tracking, the University has partnered with Verily, a life sciences company. Members of the University community will use Verily’s Healthy at Work online tool to report daily symptoms and schedule COVID-19 tests. Returning students will be granted access to the tool in an upcoming email. “Students who will be living on campus or off campus in Providence in the fall will soon receive an email with instructions on how to log on to Verily Healthy at Work, schedule their first COVID-19 test and complete symptoms screening questions,” Russell Carey P’18, executive vice president for planning and policy at the University, wrote in an email to The Herald. “Students will schedule each subsequent routine COVID-19 test directly after they have been tested.” All asymptomatic testing of students will take place in the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center. Students will be tested with a nasopharyngeal swab, which will be self-administered under the supervision of a medical professional, The Herald previously reported. Clinicians will be available to assist students who request help with administering the test. Any student exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 should contact University Health Services, which will then arrange a telehealth visit to assess the student’s symptoms and schedule a test if necessary. All symptomatic testing will be conducted by Health Services personnel and will be conducted at a separate University facility. There will be another location for symptomatic testing of students already in isolation or in the quarantine residence hall, The Herald previously reported. More information on COVID-19 testing on campus can be found here. This page will be updated as more information becomes available. If you have a question about returning to Providence that you’d like to see answered, email us at: herald@browndailyherald.com. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Online newspaper article Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource For students returning to Providence: Quiet period guidelines, testing procedures Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ben Glickman Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Brown Daily Herald Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Brown Daily Herald Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 21, 2020 fall on campus off campus quarantine quiet period RIDOH testing https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/51613/archive/files/0ee607b07ad4afa69230fdaef1e4593d.png?Expires=1787788800&Signature=o86z8P3x2p3H9opZom5AJd-jbc6qA29p3AecWSDSzX3q5rYWagOSbXm3XqzzkwzY%7EOPI5xdlYU6lq9gBkVoG9wj8pigOTsHckCOQAnvN95Y6VPL7a27f6cAuxmG2%7EZwg0hgXoTtGSumgCAs8bZp1OGVDFAa7cWMPqDoOZFvrTjugWKPMUTwhnFaLpZYAjRIg5FEWGUfKNn-qXN7vQM6puEcVDqwyCroJ-yCOSdRDTTTyeFfHBPOgBsyyhsXLxiiSG6KzlqyBDxCYLghXtiTQrsbK2JiRsrllPSsXjN3p3nAWRx1h3ERQfGgxT8e-jbm6smS7eB19j%7E7ce9uKl5NIvQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM f6f9d250ad3303e8ba403d2f6525fd9e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Dear Blueno Posts Description An account of the resource Screenshots of posts from the public Facebook group "Dear Blueno," an anonymous online forum used dominantly by the Brown community to express their opinions, concerns, or other articulations. Item names are either excerpts from posts or the posts in full. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PNG Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 18582 - Are off-campus realtors waiving rent? Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 18582 - Are off-campus realtors waiving rent? Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Dear Blueno Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource April 5, 2020 finances off campus unverified https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/51613/archive/files/0a1b132d3ee278de6900653411714c29.png?Expires=1787788800&Signature=skYAThLJMoofCX6fT0djIz-kcxc7xJr2mdkIaFx0cle5BbUH%7Er-oM9NpxqRUxVX2nrps5OMc6IsKnY%7EU%7EHHub3jI8HXijqtPHHluOdmkGwUD6Yi37xBzGp8oFsAmZtCETDcpIfyx3sg68nzsz7EUSDPultJwI7GckbYnhBiZZo8KV39MpLWi6Gf-tXkqERNo1PVpWYptE%7EO0kjSgM5A6Uwy2a%7Edg62Pb4XdKnKG6t4CoyXMX0hcIhLLl9NrWegulBWQaia8VE03XWWa%7E8Qf7Q10qPevUeFXsWnZt7BrUKm-Iymx9MFZpyRmnTMEhs5rmE06W1IRtycHDRyICynf--A__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM b74938ca0e3a2468219ff138312dd30d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Today@Brown Description An account of the resource This collection captures the different events announced on Today@Brown, a daily email received by all members of Brown, as screenshots. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document I hope you and your families are healthy and well. I am writing to update you on our plans for the fall semester at Brown. As the weeks have gone by since the July announcement of our three-semester model for bringing students back to campus for the 2020-21 year, I know that many of us have been closely watching the evolving public health situation around COVID-19. Unfortunately, the situation in the country and in Rhode Island has deteriorated over the past several weeks. Given the current landscape, in consultation with public health experts, we have determined it best to take a phased approach to the start of in-person instruction for the fall semester. In the first phase, we will permit only a limited number of students to return to campus before Labor Day. The majority of returning undergraduate students will start the Fall 2020 semester studying remotely, preferably outside of the Providence area. All undergraduate classes will be taught remotely from September 9 until the week of October 5. In the second phase, the remainder of students will be invited to return in late September, provided the public health situation has improved, and in-person instruction of small classes will begin. This staggered arrival of students over a longer time period will better position Brown to address challenges, including quarantine and isolation for any students who test positive for COVID-19. This plan also is in keeping with the data-based and public health-based decision making that has driven our planning since the beginning of the pandemic. These changes do not affect our graduate and medical students who will return to campus before Labor Day (if they are not already in Providence) and, in most cases, will have the opportunity for in-person learning. Additional details about instruction for graduate and medical students, including their participation in the COVID-19 testing program and Rhode Island quarantine regulations, will be shared with those students by the deans of the Graduate School and Medical School. While safety, always, is our top priority, let me say how sorry I am to be writing this letter. I know how eager many of our undergraduates are to return to campus, see their friends and take classes in person, and I understand that a delay of even a few weeks is difficult. Please be assured that Brown faculty and staff have worked tirelessly over the last several months to do all that is needed to safely bring students back to campus, but we must confront the reality that bringing students back in smaller numbers is the safer course. When I announced in July our plans for a three-semester model, I stressed the great uncertainty about how the COVID-19 pandemic would evolve. I also discussed the need for flexibility within our plans, recognizing that it might be necessary to make mid-course corrections and changes if the situation deteriorated across the country or, more importantly, in Rhode Island. Although Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo has taken a number of measures to reverse recent increases in COVID-19 cases, it is unclear whether cases will decline or continue to rise in the coming weeks. Also of concern are high infection rates across the country. Brown’s quarantine and isolation capacity could be unduly stressed if a large number of returning students simultaneously test positive for COVID-19. The modified phased approach to bringing students back to campus does not impact the plans announced in July for a three-term academic calendar. The expectation is that first-year students will still arrive for the spring term and continue to the summer term. Colleagues across campus have been preparing extensively to support the health and safety of students, including setting up an on-campus testing site, training contact tracers, investing in improved air filtration systems, and purchasing additional cleaning supplies. We have also developed a public health education campaign that will encourage all members of our community to do their part to reduce the spread of infection. While we have no control over the current course of the pandemic, we will be ready to bring all of our students back when the situation improves. CRITERIA FOR THE RESUMPTION OF IN-PERSON TEACHING AND LEARNING -- All undergraduates classes will be remote until at least October 5. -- If by September 11, COVID-19 cases in Rhode Island have declined from their current level over a 14-day period and the number of students who test positive for COVID-19 is sufficiently low, then we will follow our current plan to offer many smaller undergraduate courses (with no more than 20 students) in person beginning on October 5. -- If these conditions are not met by September 11, the remainder of the semester will be remote. Bringing undergraduate students to campus for less than seven weeks of in-person instruction would create significant logistical and practical challenges, both for students and the University. MOVE-IN AND FEES FOR DELAYED IN-PERSON CLASSES -- If it is decided on September 11 that in-person classes will begin on October 5, undergraduate students will be invited to move in to their residence halls during the week of September 21. This will allow them to complete any quarantine requirements before attending in-person classes. (See below for the criteria for students to receive permission to return earlier.) -- For undergraduate students who choose to return to campus during the week of September 21, any room and board fees will be pro-rated to account for the shorter time on campus. Students will receive communications in the coming days about how fees will be appropriately adjusted. RECEIVING PERMISSION TO RETURN TO CAMPUS TO LIVE IN RESIDENCE HALLS BEFORE LABOR DAY -- Undergraduate students in the following situations can apply for permission to return to campus to live in residence halls before Labor Day: -- Students who live in unsafe environments; students whose living circumstances are such that remote study is difficult; international students who cannot travel home; and students with other exceptional circumstances (to be assessed on an individual basis). -- Students with previous plans for archival or laboratory research that can only be done on campus. -- Students who receive permission to return to campus to live in residence halls before Labor Day will be invited to move in on their currently-scheduled dates. -- Students who receive permission to return to live in residence halls will be required to fulfill Rhode Island quarantine regulations and enroll in Brown’s COVID-19 testing program to get tested twice per week, free of charge. -- All students will be subject to Brown’s updated COVID-19 Campus Safety Policy, which has been expanded from the COVID-19 Workplace Safety Policy to encompass all teaching, research, learning, work and other activities that are authorized to take place on campus. GUIDANCE FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS WITH OFF-CAMPUS HOUSING -- Undergraduate students with off-campus housing are discouraged from returning to campus until late September, in time to complete quarantine before in-person instruction begins. Those who choose to return or who are already living in the City of Providence will be required to: -- Enroll in Brown’s COVID-19 testing program and get tested twice per week, free of charge. -- Abide by Rhode Island’s quarantine regulations to protect the health of the Brown and Providence communities. All students, faculty and staff will receive follow-up communications from members of my senior leadership team explaining further what to expect for the fall term, given these modified plans for the start of the academic year. We know that participation in a COVID-19 testing and tracing program combined with consistent mask wearing, social distancing and increased hand washing is essential for slowing the spread of this virus. Whenever members of the community return to campus, it will be vitally important that we all embrace our shared responsibility in following these new standards. I know this news is not what our undergraduates were hoping to hear. The uncertainty of what will happen this fall is exceptionally difficult, both logistically and emotionally. I want nothing more than to see all of our students back on campus. However, we must make decisions that prioritize the health and safety of the Brown community as well as the greater Providence community. I recognize that this year will be unlike any other, but we remain committed to delivering Brown’s world-class education. Sincerely, Christina H. Paxson President Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Modifications to Brown’s plan for Fall 2020 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource President Christina H. Paxson Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Today@Brown Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 12, 2020 Christina Paxson fees off campus Online Classes testing trimester system university communications updated fall reopening plan https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/51613/archive/files/a93aab882d0445432137f491dddb0442.png?Expires=1787788800&Signature=I%7EcvzQaqR-DWif5o3Xk42vKFVmPnZGkVD4wuENc38xptLN868SoMdx-EXAHncMh2F1KaiEiIFnkDdtItSu72oclIK1ArI1NVMDlv0ngvFXThz0x8Ti5jY7aMpsxEC4ZE8qVp415yfgpvaR6cUF1pMS%7EuGrckwcQj0PMjzIdiT9Lxj9FgZpGJZWgPPftTlJwAnNm4HTRbB62Y6TvRSg7cMnPCI8RbSzu%7EDOvKV0brTxLcYviuSJxCM2l%7EEV16bh3XeEPTmqgoLletGIrL8FN2LKFtpmfhAZdofBkl6KBr7OOw7e1F6fVpzhj4-buOl2OMpO5HCvpQalCwA7qpuSGUyA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 35f761b93ed9dbc8ff09b5a656090274 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Brown Daily Herald Description An account of the resource This collection consists of articles published by the Brown Daily Herald, the undergraduate daily student newspaper, in regards to COVID-19 at Brown. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Prior to students’ return to campus this fall, the University has upheld its policy requiring students to spend six semesters living on campus, and promised to uphold their agreement to house all students who request it. In light of COVID-19, the University has guaranteed that all students returning to live on campus will be housed “based on single room occupancy” with the goal of “de-densifying” residential spaces. Unfortunately, since the release of Brown’s “Plan for a Healthy and Safe 2020-21” statement on July 7, the University’s commitments to “transparency” and to “developing plans with the goal of maintaining the financial well-being of students and employees” have been repeatedly broken. Specifically, as undergraduate students attempt to plan for the fall semester, the Office of Residential Life’s housing policies have been frustratingly inconsistent. According to the Undergraduate Council of Students, 41 percent of students have listed residential halls in their top four concerns about returning to campus. They are right to be concerned, according to health guidelines from both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the University. Without access to kitchens, students will be dependent on grab-and-go meals from dining halls; those with dietary restrictions face the added stress of whether or not they can trust the food they are given. Bathrooms are to be cleaned more frequently, though considerations of facilities staff hazard pay and overtime wages are absent from the administration’s public correspondences. ResLife promised to release housing information for students on campus Aug. 10, but to date students have yet to receive their assignments. Furthermore, in correspondences to the Brown community on August 11th, the University released new plans about staggering student arrivals through September. Initially, August 10th left very little time for students to start creating their housing group’s own internal policies surrounding cleaning, guests and bathroom use. Now, students have to manage the added confusions of living in housing pods in which new people will be quarantining for fourteen days throughout September. Managing one’s housing pod is difficult in the best of circumstances. While Brown’s new arrival plans are safer in theory, the University’s inability to communicate this plan until mid-August is problematic for students who are already facing serious planning issues such as transportation to campus. Additionally, housing assignments are made considering only one of two factors: “either the style of housing (suite/apartment or non-suite/apartment) or being assigned near another student who has mutually requested to be assigned near you.” Since ResLife cannot provide students with the ability to even anticipate — let alone plan — what their personal facilities and housing group will be, many students are finding it difficult to trust the University right now. In my own experiences living exclusively with college students in closed-loop social isolation bubbles, building trust and mutual accountability is critical to the success of the pod and necessary for maintaining mental health. It takes time, and without information about those with whom they would share high-risk spaces, many students are forced to choose between studying remotely or risk a housing situation that accommodates neither their needs nor their safety. Even with the trimester system and the option of attending classes remotely, the University admitted in an email correspondence to rising juniors in July that they did not anticipate having the necessary space to provide students with enough single-person housing on campus. Even though they have now successfully addressed this specific issue by going back on their word to juniors seeking off-campus permission, each single room still does not have the necessary facilities like a private kitchen and bathroom that would be necessary, according to the CDC, to fully prevent spreading the virus amongst asymptomatic carriers. Furthermore, the University has yet to release a comprehensive explanation of how self-isolation housing will quarantine potentially infected students. The University claims that students, when waiting for test results or quarantining, will be moved to alternative housing which “should at a minimum include a single room with its own adjoining bathroom,” though information on where these rooms are, and how students will safely move remain absent. Still, the details released on August 11th in the University’s “Campus Safety Policy” about students’ isolation practices remain vague, mentioning that students will be “directed to ‘isolate’ from others” and that multiple services like Dining, facilities, and EMS have “partnered to ensure that students are supported.” No further plans have been released regarding potential evacuation or outbreak containment. The University claims to “follow at all times guidance from the CDC and RIDOH,” yet the lack of single-user bathrooms and the overall absence of clear plans for students who need to quarantine blatantly undermines this claim. Multiple students believe that reopening campus under the current plan will inevitably go awry, even with staggered arrivals. To date, ResLife has not told students about the ratio of students to bathrooms, or how the minor access to kitchen storage will be organized. Understandably skeptical of on-campus housing, rising juniors lined up for the newly rolled out off-campus permission waitlist in June in the hopes of bypassing the stressors associated with living on campus. Therefore, some students were planning to return to Providence to live off-campus regardless of whether or not they had permission to do so. Without a clear date on when they would be given or denied off-campus permission from the June waitlist, rising juniors struggled to make any plans. Volunteers at ResLife answered multiple calls without the authority to release any information and couldn’t provide students with any number more specific than that “over 350” students were on this waitlist. They were also unable to assist students in planning by giving them any sense of how many people might be allowed off, though the creation and maintenance of such a list certainly implies that at least some people would be granted permission. Shockingly, On July 24th, ResLife emailed students on the waitlist that no one would be given off-campus permission at that time. The Location of Study Form was closed, and they were automatically assigned to live on campus. These juniors received an email from ResLife containing the following: “…we were uncertain — prior to the deadline for submission of the Fall 2020 Location of Study Form — if we would be able to meet the demand for on-campus housing among all students who require it … For this reason, we opened a new waitlist for students to indicate interest in off-campus permission. Because we now know that we will be able to meet the requirements both for students covered by the housing requirement and seniors who have requested on campus housing, we have closed this waitlist and are not extending additional off-campus permission.” Students were not informed until after committing to their preferences that the new off-campus waitlist was created to inform ResLife of whether or not their on-campus capacity would be filled. At this point, all Juniors who were denied off-campus permission were automatically re-assigned to on-campus housing, as they had been unable to mark “attending remotely” as their second choice preference. As such, some students decided to simply deal with living on campus, while others fought through multiple phone calls with ResLife volunteers to re-registered as remote students so that they could either live at home, or live in Providence secretly. On August 11th, ResLife once again changed their policy without warning. All students previously on the June waitlist have now been granted off-campus permission. Less than a month before classes begin, students must reorganize their off-campus living situations, which includes re-negotiating sublet situations, and having tough conversations about which lessees will return, in order to abide by the city’s restrictions on college students living together. The multiple miscommunications about off-campus permission by the University have had grave effects on students’ financial well being and planning stress. Students have a time-sensitive need to prepare for a living situation that keeps them safe from COVID-19, but they have both lacked critical information on the nature of their assigned university housing and have had the University go back on their word twice, making it nearly impossible to plan ahead. Furthermore, students have discussed in online forums that granting widespread off-campus permission can have detrimental long-term effects on the gentrification and rent prices of the Fox Point area. Many have mentioned this as a reason for choosing to study remotely instead of trying to get off-campus permission, though such considerations for the Providence community have been absent from University correspondences. Brown’s housing policies make it unnecessarily difficult for students to follow health guidelines. The University’s contradictory communications about students living off campus is creating additional financial and mental strain. In order to both contain the spread of COVID-19 and support the University’s financial priorities, Brown is demanding blind cooperation from its students without extending the trust necessary for a productive relationship with the institution. We will all be signing attestations that we will “follow required public health practices, and that (we) understand that disregard of public health practices is a conduct violation that could result in removal from campus.” How could we possibly follow required public health practices if the University will not allow us what we need to do so in terms of on-campus self-isolation? How can students properly plan ahead to live responsibly to stop the spread of COVID-19? I predict that when an outbreak does occur on campus, policies like these will be used to avoid the University’s liability and instead blame the behavior of students who tried to live within the administration’s unrealistic restrictions. Beth Pollard ’21 can be reached at beth_pollard@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Online newspaper article Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Pollard ’21: Flawed housing policies and Brown’s broken commitments to transparency in communications Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Beth Pollard Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Brown Daily Herald Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Brown Daily Herald Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 12, 2020 CDC Dining Hall dining services housing housing complaints off campus op-ed quarantine Res Life RIDOH UCS https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/51613/archive/files/a690ec47e84a76a311547f568592dde0.png?Expires=1787788800&Signature=Ri%7EgXfCb67Jwr-oqrf0Je5k9TF70I1E5tkrht4aGsYDNPUm%7ECtb4NbGWdQFreBqsfgQI7ki4cZUOH0jQvcud0TpllPutuBlyDYpFT64868oRcipKVbzNSgdK8xt2x3RamBQhvGW88NvLhafJ1bNClbV5JSCSPeq34q69SWfCpBAZcbHdhRKLHTA2yj6tC%7EHgRFVuVvYeeB4F6VO3OLPlKhzWWqxpGJj0z20piUYXEz9ilZgQlvfatA4D%7ExzSkGxCk46DQHJ%7Ed-p7e4u2u8GksUExAZ2QFu1Gn3Qp5kfazw46fYnOfkGRT6Qg514HGbB5Nykj4Ml6G22tifKUwzu6Jg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM f6e4112fb3749c2784ae6d81cd8c19a4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Brown Daily Herald Description An account of the resource This collection consists of articles published by the Brown Daily Herald, the undergraduate daily student newspaper, in regards to COVID-19 at Brown. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Last week, the Brown Undergraduate Council of Students launched a campaign against what we deemed Brown’s “pandemic fees” and nearly 2,000 Brown community members and concerned parties signed our petition. Wednesday, Aug. 12, the University responded in an email by waiving “a number of fees for the fall” and reducing fees for students “who are remote and not living in the Providence area … by more than $600.” Both of the pandemic fees called into question by UCS, the remote-learning fee and the leave-taking fee, were removed by the University. As student body president, I’m sure I speak for all my peers on UCS in sharing how ecstatic and thankful I am that the University decided to accept students’ calls to action. However, this moment should not be lost as an opportunity to push for further financial transparency from the University. The fees revoked this semester are typically added to students’ bursar accounts with little justification — and in some cases, many do not even know they are paying these fees at all. As much as I commend the University for removing these inequitable fees for this fall, I call upon Brown to provide further clarity and increased financial transparency for the future. In addition, I ask that the University clarify how the “off-campus housing fee” will be used this semester, as Brown is still charging it to hundreds of Providence locals, on-campus students and off-campus students. The fee generally pays for many in-person services and events that will now possibly be inaccessible to all students this fall given the recent announcement that Brown may remain fully remote. How On-Campus Students Pay the Remote Learning Fee While the off-campus housing fee, officially the “non-resident/commuter fee,” was recently removed for remote learners following UCS’s petition and the change to the University’s fall plan, the $920-per-year fee has long been controversial, with the University providing little-to-no clarification as to what the charge pays for. The University has only publicly clarified that the fee covers broad Campus Life Division “services and resources” with the only examples of these “resources” being “Faunce House, security services and off-campus information and listing services.” Particularly for “commuters,” students whose families live within 30 miles of campus, it is hard to imagine why those from the local community should pay to live in their own homes, even in another state, with little-to-no access or need to come to campus during remote learning. Further, what many may not know is that the non-resident fee is typically charged to all students, including those living on campus. For those living in Brown dorms, the fee is hidden in their housing costs and only billed separately when they move off campus. This means most students and families never even know they are paying this fee, which makes it impossible for them to fully understand their bills and advocate for themselves. This issue will be exacerbated if campus reopens, applying the fee to even greater portions of the Brown community. Students from the Providence community, those stuck in leases and those without a stable home to return to will be the hardest hit by the full fee. While the lack of transparency surrounding this fee is a general concern, it is even more egregious that students, including those living in the Providence area, will not have access to physical campus services and resources while being charged the full fee. And despite even increasing the fee by 3.72 percent since the last academic year, the University has failed to explain how it plans to provide comparable services online to make the fee worthwhile. In light of this major accomplishment and the reduction in hundreds of dollars in fees following student activism, it is more important than ever that we push for long-term change and full transparency about where exactly our money is going. While we don’t know for certain what exactly these “resources and services” are, it’s reasonable to assume that the costs of huge Campus Life events, such as the Student Activities Office’s annual Halloween Extravaganza, were included in that budget. This event, for example, provided hundreds of students all-you-can-eat food and activities like pumpkin decorating and a live haunted house. It is difficult to imagine how a Zoom event, or even a socially-distanced service for 15 people, will cost nearly as much as the dozens of in-person Campus Life events supposedly formerly covered by the fee. The huge sums of money no longer spent on in-person services should go back to students, including those who are from the local community, are unable to learn remotely or are otherwise unable to return home. This should certainly be repaid at a reasonable rate relative to the reduction in spending on events and other services and the closure of Campus Life community spaces, such as Faunce House and the Brown Center for Students of Color lounges. If Brown is still charging full price to hundreds of students from the Providence community, those living on campus and local off-campus students, it still needs to be able to explain exactly where our money is going and how students will receive the full benefits of the fee during a pandemic. If Brown cannot explain this, it should not be charging any student increased fees for seemingly decreased services relative to a non-pandemic Brown University experience. The Larger Problems Despite significant progress in recent days, there is substantially more the University could do to respond in an equitable manner to this pandemic and the discounted campus and academic experience we will be taking part in. This school year, Brown increased tuition and hiked fees for all students by approximately $3,000 for the academic year. However, prior to UCS’s advocacy, Brown’s only planned fee reduction was waiving the semesterly $33 “recreation fee” for remote students. Our calls for transparency and a reduction of fees were very reasonable, and we are glad the University thought so, too. But peer institutions have offered their students far more. For example, Princeton, Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins University all cut tuition prices by 10 percent. In addition, Penn, which just reversed its decision to bring students back to campus, agreed to not increase its tuition by the pre-planned 3.9 percent. As the pandemic continues, I hope Brown continues to push to keep up with our peers in reducing costs, understanding the tough financial circumstances facing many students and that our experience will not be comparable in a mostly remote environment. It is certain the University is hurting due to the pandemic, but so are Brown students and families. However, students cannot simply bill more, decrease spending or fall back on a multi-billion dollar endowment. If the charges billed to students this semester are for legitimate services, the University should take the opportunity to highlight the labor of its employees and demystify the University budget by clearly explaining where our money is going. If it can’t, Brown students and families shouldn’t be footing the bill to cover the University’s losses. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Online newspaper article Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Carroll ’21: Reducing the pandemic fees is good. Now we need long-term transparency and change. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jason Carroll Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Brown Daily Herald Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Brown Daily Herald Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 13, 2020 fees off campus op-ed UCS