Is Cal Poly ‘being reckless’ by bringing back students? Some SLO County residents are worried
It doesn’t make sense, Morro Bay resident Chris Lawing said.
“Cal Poly gets to invite thousands of students from all over the state, all over the country, heck, all over the world into our neighborhoods,” Lawing, a massage therapist of 30 years, told The Tribune. “Meanwhile, my kid gets to finish his senior year in high school sitting at home behind a computer.”
Cal Poly brought about 4,500 students to live in on-campus residence halls and allowed roughly 6,000 to take in-person classes for its winter term, which began on Jan. 4.
After the first week of classes, more than 70 students at the San Luis Obispo university tested positive for COVID-19. As of Monday, Cal Poly had reported a total of 1,015 COVID-19 cases involving students since March.
Lawing is not alone in his concerns.
The Tribune spoke with more than a dozen community members, some of them off the record, about Cal Poly’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Many said they’re concerned about the university’s impact on county public health, and feel powerless when it comes to what the large university does.
Cal Poly increases coronavirus testing
In a statement to The Tribune, Cal Poly spokesman Matt Lazier acknowledged that there are “differing opinions” about Cal Poly’s approach to the pandemic.
“But this is key to the university’s approach,” he continued. “Data and past experiences make clear that students would return to or remain in the local community, regardless of the modality of our courses or whether we open on-campus housing. We saw this last spring and over the summer.”
An estimated 10,000 students lived off campus in San Luis Obispo County during its fall term, according to the university.
The university maintains that by offering housing on campus, it can require “ongoing asymptomatic testing of thousands of students living, studying and working on campus to identify positive cases proactively,” Lazier wrote to The Tribune.
Cal Poly currently has the capacity to test about 1,920 students for COVID-19 every day, including weekends. Soon, it hopes to bump that capacity up to 4,000 tests a day.
The new testing capability is a huge step up from where the university was in the fall — when it was unable to test 5,000 students a week, its target rate.
The university now tests all students living on campus and going to campus for any reason, Lazier said. Those who are solely taking online classes and not going to campus are not required to get tested, unless they live with someone who does go to campus.
Nurse speaks about SLO university’s approach to COVID-19
The San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department doesn’t keep track of how many Cal Poly students test positive for coronavirus through its free testing locations, and has no plans to do so in the future, according to county Public Health Officer Dr. Penny Borenstein.
Additionally, the results from Cal Poly’s tests do not come back to students until 48 to 72 hours after they take the test, according to Lazier.
“It’s not going to work if they don’t have rapid testing,” said Janice Peemoeller, an ICU nurse who works at a local hospital. “I don’t know how Cal Poly didn’t prepare. It’s being reckless.”
Peemoeller said she expect a large surge in local COVID-19 cases by the end of January — even larger than the surge in coronavirus cases San Luis Obispo County is currently experiencing. She worries that the hospital where she works will not have enough beds for the patients.
“We’re full. I don’t think people understand the stress that comes with that,” the nurse said. “And it’s not just Cal Poly, the community as a whole needs to be better.”
Cal Poly students constitute a large portion of the community, with an estimated 10,000 students living in the city of San Luis Obispo as of fall 2020 and about 4,500 living on the campus this winter. Those roughly 14,500 students account for about 31% of San Luis Obispo’s population, or a little more than 5% of San Luis Obispo County’s population.
Peemoeller acknowledged that all of the COVID-19 cases they’ve seen in their hospital have involved people 30 and older.
Although Cal Poly students may contract the virus, they’re likely not experiencing the most severe symptoms associated with it, which research shows are fairly rare among younger individuals.
But some community members are worried that they may be exposed to contagious Cal Poly students.
Lawing, the Morro Bay massage therapist, said he used to work out at a local gym in the middle of the day. Now, he exercises at 5 a.m. at the gym to avoid Cal Poly students who he said harassed him after he asked them to put on face masks while they were working out in close proximity to him.
“All the (COVID-19) testing in the world won’t change their behavior,” Lawing, 55, said for the students. “If they don’t follow simple guidelines like wearing masks, they’re putting our kids, our families and our community at risk.”
Do California universities allow students on campus?
Allowing about 4,500 students to live on campus largely sets Cal Poly apart from other universities in the state.
Fresno State and Cal Poly Pomona have student enrollments of about 25,000, but are only allowing about 250 students to live on campus during their spring semesters.
Santa Clara University, which enrolls about 9,000 students, is not allowing any students on campus until Santa Clara County’s stay at home order has been lifted.
Universities bringing thousands of students back to campus have seen cases rise after just the first week of being on campus.
University of California San Diego, which has 7,306 students living on campus, reported 68 COVID-19 cases among residential students during its first week back in session. UC Irvine brought back about 7,000 students to live on campus, and reported 25 cases in the first week since classes began on Jan. 4, and 62 in the second week as of Monday.
Local families see impacts of virtual learning
Much of the frustration that community members expressed revolves around their own children.
Morro Bay resident Josh Martin is an emergency room nurse at a local hospital with a daughter in third grade. His daughter has been attending school online since March, with no clear date for a return to in-person classes.
The San Luis Coastal Unified School District board voted in November to keep most students in virtual instruction until San Luis Obispo County is in the red tier of coronavirus restrictions under California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy for 21 consecutive days.
“We’re just kind of powerless,” Martin said. “And we’re at the brink here — there are other students who need to go back to school but they can’t because our (COVID-19 case) numbers are too high.”
Local students in kindergarten through 12th grade may potentially return to in-person education by March, according to recent information released by Gov. Gavin Newsom. However, San Luis Obispo County would need a coronavirus case rate below 28 cases per 100,000 residents.
San Luis Obispo County had nearly 44 cases per 100,000 residents as of Monday.
Parents say they’ve witnessed the negative mental health impacts that distance learning is having on kids who typically thrive in school. Additionally, grades in local schools have plummeted in recent months, with some districts seeing the number of D or F grades double among secondary school students.
Cortney Wagner, a trauma therapist in San Luis Obispo, said that she thinks it is likely beneficial to Cal Poly students’ mental health that they were allowed to live on campus and take in-person classes, even though young students in the community are not able to do so.
“Mental health-wise, it’s better,” Wagner said. “Spreading the virus-wise — I don’t know if it’s worth the risk.”
For now, Wagner said she will just have to wait and see what happens next.
“I think the community is kind of holding its breath,” she said. “Like, how many cases will Cal Poly contribute? How is that going to compare to the numbers coming from the county? Will they cause a spike? Who knows at this point, right?”
This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 1:06 PM.
