COVID-19 cases up among Isla Vista students: ‘It hasn’t stopped people from partying’

As COVID-19 cases rise among college students in Isla Vista, residents have been disappointed in their neighbors who continue to violate health officer orders and maintain the community’s infamous partying reputation.

“I’ve lost a lot of respect for quite a few people because there’s this mentality that people have that we are young, and if we get sick we’ll probably just get over it quickly,” fourth-year UC Santa Barbara student Mary Pimentel said. “In reality, it’s just really selfish, and I don’t understand how people don’t think about that.”

At the end of October, Isla Vista reported nearly a 50% increase of novel coronavirus cases in just a two-week period.

Santa Barbara County Public Health Department officials attributed this rise in cases to large social gatherings, and said some outbreaks were linked to sorority and fraternity houses.

In response to the rising case count in Isla Vista, Public Health ramped up testing in the community, and UCSB expanded its own.

The county established pop-up sites on the weekends at the Isla Vista Theater, at 960 Embarcadero del Norte, where residents can be tested for free.

A coalition of government, university and community groups boosted outreach about prevention and avoiding parties as students returned to the area, even though UCSB and Santa Barbara City College are holding remote-only classes for the fall.

An increasing share of countywide cases is being linked to college-age students, according to the Public Health Department.

College and university students account for 6.1% of the county’s cumulative cases since March, Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso said Tuesday, but they represented 16.5% of all new cases in the first week of November.

That includes students who live in Isla Vista, as many SBCC and UCSB students do, and other areas of the county, she said.

To create more awareness about the partying scene in Isla Vista, a student, who wished to remain anonymous, launched an Instagram account called ucsb.party at the beginning of October to post videos and pictures of Isla Vista residents in large gatherings and party settings.

The account was created as part of a summer research project, but the account owner told Noozhawk that he continues to post because he was curious about what is causing the spread of novel coronavirus cases in Isla Vista.

“The purpose of this page is to create awareness of the partying problem in Isla Vista, and work with the people that can actually do something about it,” he said.

The account owner started off by finding content himself, but now about 80% of the page’s content is contributed by residents living in Isla Vista who want to hold their peers accountable, he said.

While he has received minor backlash from a few people for the content on his page, the account owner said that the people who are partying don’t seem to be ashamed of it.

“I think that the people who are scared of COVID-19 shouldn’t be out partying, but that is their choice. Just like it’s my choice to go out if I don’t see it as a threat,” said an Isla Vista resident walking the streets of Del Playa Drive on Saturday night. “We aren’t a vulnerable population, so I feel comfortable with the risk I am taking.”

Other Isla Vista residents said they believe this attitude is detrimental to the community and contributes to the reasons that students won’t be able to return to campus.

“Personally, it makes me angry,” UCSB student Phoebe Swigart said. “I feel like I’ve been following the recommendation to not be in large groups and stay in my own household, and when people continue to party, it feels like they are taking away some of the opportunities that I should have during my senior year.”

Swigart noted that she heard of some leasing agencies in Isla Vista encouraging outside residents to move to the neighborhood since many colleges have virtual classes, but that could not be confirmed.

Last month, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance allowing sheriff’s deputies and others to issue tickets to people violating COVID-19-related health officer orders, including large gatherings.

Public comment letters submitted to the county were a mix of people opposed to the measure and those in favor, in hopes that it could reduce the number of large parties in Isla Vista and elsewhere.

“There have been a lot of frustrations with those that are breaking the order, because people are really tired of staying in lockdown,” said Yasamin Salari, UCSB’s Associated Students external vice president for local affairs. “But, that doesn’t really matter when some students are still going around and spreading it.

“I think that the county ordinance has really helped decrease the amount of partying in Isla Vista, because now students know that they could be reprimanded for violating health orders.”

Pimentel, the UCSB fourth-year student, said there hasn’t been much of a change in enforcement after the ticketing system was created.

“I’ve heard people talk about how they try and report large gatherings and nothing comes out of it,” Pimentel said. “They get discouraged because they did what they were supposed to do, but it hasn’t stopped people from partying.”

Pimentel has seen the Isla Vista Foot Patrol walking the streets on weekends, but also noticed that they rarely are wearing masks themselves.

“It’s the most simple thing they can do to show us that they understand, and I find it incredibly ignorant and disrespectful,” she said.

Swigart said residents are taking advantage of the education-first approach in the enforcement ordinance.

“People assume that the first time they won’t be ticketed, so having this system hasn’t really stopped people,” she said.

In the face of increased cases, staff at the Isla Vista Community Services District have boosted their education efforts and are trying to give residents safe ways of having fun.

“We all know that we’re seeing a general fatigue of social distancing throughout the country, but it’s really important that we lead the way in order for our county to proceed with reopening,” IVCSD president Spencer Brandt said.

For Halloween, which usually features a packed Del Playa Drive in Isla Vista, IVCSD partnered with the Lucidity Festival to put on a virtual event during which attendees were eligible to receive cash prizes. Almost 1,000 households viewed and participated in the event, according to Brandt.

“We’re just trying to provide people with an alternative, because at a certain point we can’t just tell people what not to do, we should give them a positive thing they can do,” he said.

Salari said the UCSB external vice president for the Local Affairs Office has been taking the lead on COVID-19 outreach in Isla Vista, and has ordered and distributed thermometers and masks in the community.

It is also planning to install more hand-sanitizing stations in the community within the next few weeks.

UCSB itself requires students to get tested weekly if they live on campus or are enrolled in the few in-person classes offered, and has been offering testing through the student health center.

In partnership with the county Public Health Department, the university also encouraged students who head home for the holidays to remain home, Do-Reynoso said.

With the holiday season around the corner, a time when many people travel and go to gatherings, it is even more essential for residents to maintain safe and healthy practices and continue to get tested.

“We will continue to be leading public messaging in conjunction with the county, university and Public Health, but it’s really important for us to listen to our public health experts and doctors,” Brandt said. “Residents really need to pay attention to what public health officials are saying in regards to holiday gatherings.”

This story was originally published November 20, 2020 at 3:52 PM.