At this point in the coronavirus pandemic, everything from kindergarten to graduate school is changing for people across the nation. What place of higher education is apparently ready to welcome thousands of students back to campus and into residence halls with open arms? One of the largest Christian colleges in the nation: Liberty University.
For those unfamiliar with it, Liberty is a private, evangelical Christian school located in Lynchburg, Virginia. To give you an idea of the price point, undergraduate education comes in at more than $20,000 in tuition and fees per year. You might recall that last year, Mike Pence gave a commencement speech at the school, warning graduates that they may be “shunned” because of their Christian faith. Donald Trump has also given a commencement speech at the university.
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As reported by The News & Advance, Liberty president Jerry Falwell Jr.—a major Trump supporter—let residents know they can come back to the dorms. How many residents? Oh, it could be up to 5,000. Mind you, whether faculty come to campus to hold office hours or not, the courses will still be mostly online. And if students choose to come back to the dorms, they’ll also do their coursework online.
“I think we, in a way, are protecting the students by having them on campus together,” Falwell said on the decision as reported by the outlet.
What else is frightening about this? Liberty is returning from its spring break. While everyone spends that time off differently, plenty of students across the country choose to travel, either to go home or to go on vacation. Remember the spring breakers flocking to Florida’s beaches? Imagine those people flying back to live among 5,000 other people in close quarters.
On that note, Liberty will have its gym, library, and academic buildings open as well as the residence halls. Some changes are reportedly happening: in efforts to comply with Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s order, the classes, like labs, that will continue to meet face-to-face will have to stay under the 10-person limit. Similarly, the dining halls will be to-go only. Those shifts are better than nothing, but while the nation slowly shuts down, they’re far from enough.
“99% of them are not at the age to be at risk and they don’t have conditions that put them at risk,” the university president said. Though initial reports suggested that only older people and people with compromised immune systems were at risk of serious illness or death (and that’s a big enough deal in itself), as time goes on, research suggests otherwise. Even still, it’s impossible to know someone’s health status just by looking at them—someone could easily have a life-threatening chronic illness that you can’t see. Not to mention that exposed people can then expose others who may not be able to fight off the virus.
Falwell stated to the outlet, "I think we have a responsibility to our students—who paid to be here, who want to be here, who love it here—to give them the ability to be with their friends, to continue their studies, enjoy the room and board they've already paid for and to not interrupt their college life.” While understandably disappointing for many, a global pandemic is among the biggest reasons to interrupt college life.
As Daily Kos reported earlier this month, when universities began sending residents out of the dorms, people had mixed feelings. Campuses, what with dining halls, gyms, libraries, and the dorm rooms themselves, very well could be breeding grounds. On the other hand, not everyone else has another home to go to—some students are estranged from their families while others simply live too far away to be able to get home (assuming border closings haven’t already interfered).
As social media got wind of vulnerable students suddenly becoming homeless, schools made policies for extenuating circumstances known at varying levels of detail. Amherst College, for example, specified that students who did not travel during spring break were allowed to apply to stay on campus. Harvard, on the other hand, suggested that concerned students talk to their residence hall adviser. Some schools, like St. John’s University, noted that visitors and guests will not be allowed in the dorms.
In pretty much all of these cases, students are still doing coursework online. Gyms, dining halls, libraries, and other communal spaces are closed. The idea is that if you have absolutely nowhere safe you can go (or afford), you may stay on your campus. It’s not a party or a free-for-all.
One staff member at Liberty, English professor Marybeth Davis Baggett, wrote a powerful op-ed for Religion News Service that was republished at The Washington Post in which she points out that the campus is not a self-isolated community. “Liberty is not a bubble,” she argues, “where the virus would be contained. Instead, its population comes into regular contact with those in the Lynchburg community, putting their health and lives at risk as well.”
While health care workers struggle to save lives among dwindling supplies, the very least people can do is practice social distancing and stay home whenever possible. For some students in special circumstances, home may still be a dorm room, but that should clearly be the exception, not the norm.
