After not receiving clear guidance about the COVID-19 policy from anyone else, Zhang resorted to using her own personal judgment and stayed in her dorm as much as possible, only leaving to get food from the dining hall. 

12 out of 54 PCR tests conducted at Health Services were positive in the month of September. Two out of 36 health services tests have been positive thus far in October. However, according to Health Services Medical Director Dr. Jennifer Schwartz, this data may not accurately reflect COVID levels at Wellesley.

“This [data] is just looking at who came into Health Services. I know there’s a large portion of students that don’t use us or didn’t come in,” said Dr. Schwartz. “The numbers are actually probably a lot higher than what we’ve recorded.”

These test results are concurrent with the general COVID trends in the area. COVID increased by about 300 cases in Massachusetts during the last month but has been decreasing in the last two weeks as of Oct. 15.

On Oct. 4, Vice President and Dean of Students Sheilah Shaw Horton sent an email to students acknowledging the current spread of disease, including COVID, on campus. Dean Horton stated that students “learned healthy habits during the pandemic that [they could] use now to stay safe.”

As of March 28, 2024, the College uses the CDC’s suggestions for COVID quarantining policy. No new information regarding COVID-19 related policies has been announced for the 2024-25 school year. The College has a “Keeping Wellesley Healthy” webpage with its public COVID-19 related policies. 

Dr. Schwartz noted that the CDC recommendations are “kind of vague” and is working with Dean Horton to update the webpage. For now, while there is no defined isolation period, CDC guidelines recommend avoiding being around people if one experiences COVID-like symptoms. Once people are fever-free for 24 hours, they do not have to be “isolated” as long as they mask for five days.

Students can book an appointment in Health Services to test for COVID with their rapid PCR machine.

“The PCR test is the more sensitive test, so it can pick COVID up earlier. The rapid tests are not quite as sensitive, especially with these newer strains,” Dr. Schwartz said.

In case students cannot make it to Health Services, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has rolled out free COVID rapid tests that can be ordered online. Students can order four rapid tests to their unit box. Rapid tests are also available for purchase at the bookstore.

While testing is made accessible to students, Health Services currently does not have COVID vaccines for the school year. 

“Our hope was to have COVID vaccines, but because they’re more widely available this year, there’s also a shortage of them. We’re working on it, but the barrier is just the supply chain,” Dr. Schwartz said.

Currently, the nearest place to receive the COVID vaccine is CVS, and an appointment can be booked online. The new vaccines are free “with most insurance.” If students are looking for affordable transportation options, Dr. Schwartz recommended Catch Connect, a discounted ride share service in Wellesley and the surrounding areas. 

Policy Concerns

Even though the pandemic has moved past its peak, some students are concerned about the lack of schoolwide COVID response.

“There’s not really class-wide or college-wide support for people that are being COVID conscious, and so a lot of people have had to rely on smaller communities or smaller orgs on campus to find communities that they feel safe in,” Dylan Bunyak ’27 said.

When Zhang first suspected that she had COVID-19, she struggled to find masks or COVID tests, forcing her to seek roundabout methods.

“Apparently, in my roommate’s CS class, they just have a box of masks in there, so that’s where I got the masks from. I live in the Quint and when I was sick, I really did not want to walk all the way to health services to get a COVID test, so my roommate ended up getting the COVID test for me,” Zhang said.

Members of Students for an Accessible Wellesley (SAW) have also expressed concern over college policies and the lack of administrative attention on COVID support.

“We have a chronic problem where we notice issues on campus, we contact some department and admin about it, and there’s only a small fraction of the time that they even respond to our emails, much less actually agree to help with the problems we’re having,” Esmé Krummel ’25 said.

To support and advocate for COVID-conscious and infected students on campus, SAW created a “Wellesley COVID Action Plan” that included increasing COVID consciousness on campus, meal deliveries, and a testing distribution program.

“Even though the college is following a lot of the CDC guidelines, we feel that the CDC guidelines aren’t particularly representative of the struggles faced by students with chronic illness or students who are immunocompromised and have more of a risk from COVID,” Krummel said.

Minimizing the Spread

As illnesses have been spreading, students – especially those that are immunocompromised – have been advocating for masking on campus.

“Masking is community care,” Bunyak said. “Masking is a very visible sign of support for disabled and immunocompromised sibs on campus.”

Professors also echo this support for masks. Sohie Lee, Professor of Computer Science, noted that while the Department itself does not have a mask policy, the department requested masks from the College, which individual professors have recommended for their own students. All departments can request masks from the College free of charge on the Facilities website. 

SAW members further suggest the importance of professors in relieving the pressures of an illness.

“I think that professors can play a big role in terms of advocating,” SAW member Iris Zhan ’27 said. “People are coming [to class sick] because they feel like they’re going to fall behind. I think professors can also be supportive in the sense of helping people catch up.”

If students are concerned about absences due to illnesses, they should speak to their professors and class dean to work on a compromise.

Zhang also suggests making masks and COVID tests more accessible, especially because the College is not very big.

“I feel like it wouldn’t be that hard to have [masks and tests] in the res halls, in the dining halls, stuff like that,” Zhang said.

Dr. Schwartz said that Health Services is trying to accommodate all students within a timely manner, and that she is always open to suggestions, whether through email or in person. 

With COVID still in the air, flu season in full swing, and other viruses like RSV and the common cold spreading, Dr. Schwartz emphasized the importance of rest for recovery.

“The short of it is, if somebody’s not feeling well, whether it’s COVID or not, I would love them to be empowered to self care and rest,” Dr. Schwartz said.

Contact the editors responsible for this story: Valida Pau, Sazma Sarwar and Lyanne Wang

As the College transitioned into the 2021-2022 school year, some of the policies continued. A statement from President Johnson, released on Aug. 27, 2021, outlined health and safety precautions that amended the College’s previous guidelines about campus life during the pandemic.

Students were instructed to mask in common spaces and classrooms and restricted to in-state travel, and guests were still banned from entering campus buildings. The College returned to the semester system. Once all students were invited back to campus, the College moved quarantine locations from on campus in the Dower House to The Verve, a hotel in Natick. Testing was still twice a week at the Beebe testing site or the College Club, and positive cases were tracked on the Wellesley College COVID-19 dashboard. Other policies were lifted – transportation off-campus was permitted, grab-and-go options were replaced with open dining halls, and social distancing was not required in classrooms. During the spring of 2021, the college offered a COVID-19 vaccination clinic and mandated vaccinations. Guests were eventually allowed on campus and in buildings, registered given their vaccination status.

As the pandemic seemingly lessened in severity, the administration lessened guidelines for the 2022-2023 school year. Wellesley dropped several of its COVID-19 policies, according to an email sent on July 22, 2022. As part of this, faculty members could require masking at their discretion, and weekly testing was optional and only located at the College Club. In the email, the College also announced that hotel isolation would cease. Students who tested positive for COVID-19, regardless of whether they had a roommate, were required to quarantine in the residence halls. Continuing from the year prior, visitors were allowed inside most buildings, this time without registration.

This year, COVID-19 policies have become less restrictive, regardless of the spike in COVID-19 rates. According to the State of Massachusetts COVID dashboard, there has been a small increase of cases in fall of 2023 compared to the spring and summer. Sept. 18, 2023 had a reported seven-day-average of 492 cases of COVID-19, while June 12, 2023 only had a reported seven-day-average of 137 cases. 

When the COVID-19 announcement from Sheilah Shaw Horton, vice president and dean of students was released on Sept. 22, 2023, some students found themselves unhappy with the policy revisions. Iris Zhan ’27 noted that as soon as the email came out, they felt the need to share it with family members. 

“I forwarded it to my parents and they were so mad,” they said. “They were like, ‘What, they don’t know how many students have COVID-19?’”. 

Grace Sun, ’27 felt that the content of the email was misleading. 

“From this email, without knowing how the situation really is, I would assume that it’s not that bad or that there are just a couple cases. But it’s actually far more serious than that and I think it’s a problem that the administration is addressing [it] with this level of unseriousness,” said Sun, “I think this email [feels] like it hasn’t addressed the problem. It brushes off the issue.”

The email gave an update on the COVID-19 protocol. The College is no longer recording the COVID-19 cases on campus, but vaccination and masking is still highlighted as the main form of preventing the spread.  The newest COVID-19 booster is available at nearby pharmacies, and administration is working to bring a clinic to campus. Health Services offers testing to those that are symptomatic, but recommends purchasing rapid tests from pharmacies for self-testing. Health Services is no longer giving out rapid tests and no longer taking walk-ins. Health Services is available for those that test positive, but students should make an appointment by calling. Students who test positive should use their Ozzi containers to get meals to go. Asymptomatic students should mask and test on day six after exposure, but are allowed to go to class and participate in normal activities after five days of isolation. Hybrid classes are not offered for those who get COVID-19. If your roommate tests positive, both of you should wear masks and open a window. Roommates are not able to move to a different space.

For Zhan, these policy changes are not supportive enough for students on campus.

“When I got COVID-19 last week, I called the after-hours [hotline for health services], and they said because they were not open, that I had to get a test from CVS. I was fortunate enough that a friend of mine was able to get me two tests, and that’s how I knew, but I didn’t even realize that  even during their open hours they wouldn’t actually give you a test [if you’re asymptomatic], which is ridiculous. Also, [Health Services] didn’t seem to be prepared or caring about everyone that’s struggling with COVID-19,” said Zhan. 

Sun agrees, stating that she feels uncomfortable with the fact that masking is optional and testing is unavailable. 

“I went to Health Services last week because I was not feeling well to get tested because I wanted to protect other people from myself and they said, ‘You can’t get a test from us unless you are severely symptomatic.’ I think that’s just pretty unreasonable, especially because the way to stop COVID-19 from really spreading is to catch it before it starts transmitting to other people,” said Sun. 

The lack of guidelines poses difficulties for the roommates of infected students. “My roommates struggled for the many days that I was with COVID-19. [The College] doesn’t really care about what to do with the roommates. They’re like ‘Oh, mask up!’ [My roommates] had to sleep in the Bates TV room, and they also slept in the Clapp living room as well. They told me that they didn’t get much sleep, which really sucks,” said Zhan. 

For many, COVID-19 is not just a small cold or a temporary ailment, and Zhan worries about it.

“I am not immunocompromised but this is so much more urgent and worse for them, so why aren’t we caring as much as we did when we had other outbreaks?” questioned Zhan. 

Although Sun and Zhan are first-year students, they are aware of the previous COVID-19 policies and wish that the administration would reinstate some of them.

“If [Dower] truly is empty and not currently used, it would be great if we could put that into use again and quarantine people that have COVID-19. If we could have isolation, actual physical isolation, between students who have COVID-19 and those who don’t, even if it’s just for a couple days, I think that would improve the situation,” said Sun. 

“It’s kind of like a, ‘You’re on your own, kid,’ kind-of-thing, which is surprising and what you don’t expect at a liberal arts college. Maybe at bigger schools, they will hold your hand less and care less, but this is Wellesley – they are supposed to care,” said Zhan. 

According to Wellesley’s Office of Media Relations, the College “revised our COVID-19 policies in ways that will allow us to teach, learn, collaborate and build community more easily.”

“The College’s policies on testing and masking are consistent with state and federal guidance,” said the Office of Media Relations. “As of Monday, Sept. 25, free COVID-19 tests are available at covidtests.gov. Tests also may be purchased at local pharmacies and at the Bookstore in Lulu. The two best defenses against COVID-19 continue to be masking and vaccination. Members of the community are welcome to mask more often than required based on their individual health and family situations. The College also strongly encourages all community members to get the new COVID-19 booster, which provides a defense against new variants. It is available at pharmacies off-campus now, and we are working to bring a COVID-19 vaccination clinic to campus. Going forward, we will continue to align our health and safety policies with CDC guidelines.”