In a Campus Residents’ Meeting hosted Jan. 18, Ernie Stufflebean, associate dean of students and director of student life, shared some statistics regarding COVID-19 at William Jewell College.

The following data was provided by Landon Jones, director of campus safety.

During the fall 2020 semester, there were a total of 106 positive COVID-19 cases at Jewell. Out of the 106 cases, 83 were students, and 23 were employees. 

Because of close contact with the aforementioned positive cases, 361 people were quarantined including 341 students and 20 employees.

On average, each case resulted in six students being quarantined due to close contact. Of those quarantined, approximately seven percent then tested positive while in quarantine. 

Of the 106 positive cases, 12 cases, or 20 percent of all positive cases, culminated in 280 quarantined as a result of close contact, or 75 percent of all quarantined cases. Of these 280 cases, 23 went on to test positive. 

An analysis of the top 20 percent of all positive cases on campus yielded the following information:

The majority of the contagion that led to positive and quarantine cases can be traced to one of three activities:

1. Athletic team activities including practice, travel and competition. 
2. Social activities including off-campus activities where students go to restaurants and recreational sites such as bowling alleys. Social activities also include the times in which students travel in vehicles to get to off-campus and on-campus locations. Finally, social activities also include students hanging out in dorms and engaging in recreation such as watching movies, eating and drinking.
3. Campus housing activities including cohabitation, meaning that living arrangements between roommates, housemates, or suitemates can be conducive to contagion and quarantine. 

The analysis indicated that there was no evidence of COVID-19 spread in classrooms, labs, music ensembles, nursing programs, early education programs or in the dining hall. 

Stufflebean says that this piece of information is quite promising, in that it indicates Jewell’s Operation Safe Campus is an effective plan for mitigating COVID-19 spread on campus.

According to Landon Jones, as of Feb. 9, 2021, the college has administered approximately 3,500 COVID-19 tests. 

As the Jewell community heads into the spring semester of 2021, Stufflebean would like to remind the Jewell community of a couple of key points that will be crucial to keep in mind in order to continue to keep the spread of COVID-19 at a minimum. 

First and foremost, students should be aware of the Threat Levels which the college is operating under. Currently, Jewell is at Threat Level B, meaning that while students can entertain visitors in residential areas, these visitors can only be fellow Jewell students.

When in another student’s sleeping room, both visiting students and hosting students must wear masks and maintain social distancing measures. This means that typically only one guest can be safely accommodated in a sleeping room at a time. Under Threat Level B, no off-campus visitors are allowed. This is to protect the college from any off-campus threats and to create a so-called “Jewell bubble.” 

If a student feels ill, then the student should not host students in their sleeping room or visit other students’ sleeping rooms. Instead, the student should contact the Student Health Center as soon as possible to ensure that the illness is not COVID-19. Before receiving a positive or negative COVID-19 test the student should isolate as much as possible to prevent the possible spread of COVID-19. 

Under Threat Level C, indicating an uncontrolled spread of COVID-19 on campus, students would not be allowed to have visitors, regardless of whether they are part of the Jewell community or not. 

In both Threat Levels B and C, students are reminded that it is obligatory for students to wear facial coverings inside of enclosed buildings, including residential areas.

This means that if one does not live in an area with connected restrooms, and one lives in a residential area with communal restrooms, one must wear facial coverings unless one is taking a shower or brushing their teeth.

For further resources related to COVID-19 preparedness, Stufflebean recommends that students sign-up for the Campus Resident Resource course on Moodle. There, students can find information on Jewell’s threat level matrix, facial covering policy, COVID-19 testing policy and more. 

It is a unique year for students at William Jewell College. Along with those policies detailed in the student handbook, students must now abide by new policies in order to mitigate the risk presented by  COVID-19. These policies are detailed in the Operation Safe Campus guidelines.

The COVID-19 policy consists of two core features. First, masks must be worn at all times on campus except when students are alone or with their roommate in their own dorm rooms. Second, gatherings must be limited so that proper social distancing can be practiced. There are other elements to the COVID policy, as well, like the prohibition of off-campus guests from residence halls and expectations to maintain sanitary practices – though there have been no reported violations of these policies as of yet. As students enter into the second half of the semester, the first few student violations of the COVID-19 policy have now been adjudicated by the Standard of Conduct Review Board (SOCRB).

While all Jewell staff members do their part to enforce these policies, the on-the-ground nature of Resident Assistants’ (RA) job responsibilities means they are assigned the brunt of the responsibility of enforcement.

Semple Hall RA Archer Wright, sophomore Oxbridge institutions & policy major, shared that he often observes mild violations of the mask rules and, in response, makes sure to emphasize the vitality of wearing a mask, even if the student is just popping into the bathroom.

“The most frequently broken of these rules is the mask requirement,” Wright said. “Many times students will not think to put on their mask while walking to the bathroom or walking to their friend’s room, but we try and make it clear that even in these short bursts of being out in the open that it is extremely important to wear your masks.”

However, if RAs find themselves giving multiple warnings to the same students or find a student committing a more serious COVID-19 violation – like hosting a large gathering where social distancing isn’t practiced and masks aren’t worn – they must submit an institutional incident report. Following the report, Ernie Stufflebean, director of residence life and assistant dean of student life, meets with the student individually to explain the Standard of Conduct Review Board process and to complete paperwork.

Stufflebean shared that, since the beginning of the school year, a total of three individual students have been referred to the Board, while multiple student gatherings were reported.

“To date, a total of three individual students have been referred and there have been two incidents involving, ‘room parties,’ with multiple students gathering in a residential room with alcohol, not wearing facial coverings or maintaining social distance. We continuously reinforce our attention to Operation Safe Campus with staff due to the significant implications for the health and safety of our campus community,” Stufflebean said.

Outcomes from milder infractions have ranged from community service to disciplinary probation. For more dangerous infractions, including large unmasked student gatherings, Stufflebean shared that SOCRB outcomes included a research paper on COVID-19 and the College’s Operation Safe Campus plan, community service, creating a public service announcement promoting COVID-19 precautions, disciplinary probation and a two-week partial suspension. The duration of the partial suspension was intended to represent the amount of time one is required to quarantine if exposed to COVID-19.

Though some students have wondered if COVID-19 violations or the intensity with which RAs and campus safety have been enforcing the policy have recently increased, Stufflebean remarked that there have neither been an uptick in violations nor an increased emphasis on COVID-19 policy enforcement since the beginning of the school year.

All COVID-19 violations thus far have been responded to by residence life staff. COVID-19 violations can also be reported to campus safety, though Landon Jones, director of campus safety, shared that campus safety has not received many reports.

“Very few violations have been reported directly to Campus Safety Officers and there hasn’t been a recent uptick in COVID-19 related policy violations reported to Campus Safety officers,” Jones said.

William Jewell College started its first week of school Aug. 26 with mostly in-person classes for the fall semester. Prior to starting school, the College administered mandatory COVID-19 tests for all employees and student-athletes, while remaining students could opt for voluntary testing. 

According to the Jewell Coronavirus Response page, during the time frame of Aug. 22 to Sept. 6, there were 817 total COVID-19 tests administered to Jewell students and staff. Out of these tests, there were 11 student positives and 1 employee positive. This translates to a 1.3 percent positivity rate. Currently, the rate of positive cases on campus is zero. 

The COVID-19 policies to be followed on-campus were published in a July 31 guide by Jewell’s Operational Planning Team. These policies include socially distanced classrooms, mandatory facial coverings and added barriers in common areas. 

Joseph Garcia, vice president of operations and finance, said that Jewell’s low positivity rate is evidence of compliance with COVID-19 protocols. 

“Our Operation Safe Campus procedures have been mostly followed for which we are grateful.  Compared to other schools we are doing well,” Garcia said. “One measurement is the relatively low # (number) of positive cases that we’ve had so far, about a 1 percent positivity rate. That doesn’t just happen. It takes students, faculty, and staff doing the basics like wearing masks and social distancing, monitoring symptoms, etc and being personally accountable for the greater good.”

Similarly, Ernie Stufflebean, director of residence life, said that he has received positive feedback about how well the COVID-19 procedures are being followed in residence halls.

“Based on feedback from RA’s, RD’s and House Managers, it seems that residential students are doing a good job of following the College’s Operation Safe Campus plan,” Stufflebean said. “Staff are trained to educate residential students about the plan and to remind them of the guidelines if a resident is operating outside of the plan.” 

COVID-19 procedures for residence halls include maintaining social distancing and appropriate hygiene measures, as well as the exclusion of non-resident guests from residence halls. The specific protocols for residence halls can be found on the “Campus Resident Resource” page on Moodle.

“We received specific feedback on some of our quarantine actions that we’ve modified as a result,” said Garcia regarding whether any changes to COVID protocols will be made. 

These modifications include organizing ways for students to receive food without coming into contact with others and setting up an outdoor area for students quarantining to safely get fresh air. Browning Hall is the dedicated space on-campus for students to isolate or quarantine should the need arise.

Though Jewell is currently reporting zero active COVID-19 cases, this should not lead students and staff into complacency or a false sense of security. 

“While there may be no current cases on campus, we must continue to follow our Operation Safe Campus plan and take all necessary precautions to mitigate the spread of COVID-19,” Stufflebean said. “I think communicating the on-going status is important for a number of reasons, but we cannot become complacent when there are no active cases on campus. As we’ve seen, this can quickly change with just one positive case.”

Garcia points to continued testing as a safety measure necessary to contain the threat on-campus.

“There will be ongoing testing of students that will provide us a feedback loop on our procedures,” Garcia said. “Our student athletes are tested to follow NCAA guidelines for example. We are testing those that are about to end their quarantine period to add another layer of precaution. Regardless of these test results, we should not get complacent as we are fighting a formidable foe with the coronavirus. We’ve seen what can quickly happen at other colleges and universities.”

Jewell’s COVID-19 protocols, threat level, and campus updates can be found on the William Jewell Coronavirus response page. Additionally, The Hilltop Monitor publishes live updates about COVID-19 on-campus in a realtime blog.

The Spectrum Enterprise SpectrumU TV webpage explains that the university-based service “enables colleges and universities to meet this expectation and provide more on-campus value by enabling students to watch TV anytime and anywhere.” Over 200 channels of shows, movies and games are available to watch from near any modern smart device or streaming device, anywhere on campus. Channel availability may waver if off campus while the program is in the early stages. However, this will change in the near future. 

“We will be working on new technology to expand SpectrumU services off-campus starting late this fall or early this spring (it’s currently only available on-campus). This will allow students to use the service from home and student athletes can view TV and movies while on the road at away games,” Stufflebean said. 

The service promises a smooth and efficient experience, as Spectrum states on their website. 

“[Rely] on our exceptional content delivery network to help students stay informed and entertained. Because SpectrumU is IP-delivered, it requires no on-campus equipment to purchase, power or maintain. That saves you time, money and effort while creating the reliability students expect,” the website states.

The introduction of the Speed Queen app, coupled with the new laundry machines across campus, looks to ease a common student complaint around campus. The app is compatible with college-provided iPads, along with other devices. 

“We know students have very busy schedules. This new service will be a time-saver. We hope it will also reduce students forgetting their laundry and occupying machines,” Stufflebean said. 

In addition to being notified of when your clothes are ready to be taken out of the washer or dryer or when machines are available, the app is also capable of detecting when machines need maintenance. Stufflebean promises that a technician will respond to said alert within 24 hours. 

“The new service provider will also service machines every two weeks. Well maintained machines with less down time will reduce student inconvenience and frustration,” said Stufflebean. 

Stufflebean emphasized he isn’t done improving the daily lives of students, stating that faculty, staff and administration will continue to listen to students. 

“Student input and feedback is an important part of our work in improving student life on The Hill. We are committed to affecting change where we can to provide students with an outstanding co-curricular and residential experience,” concluded Stufflebean.