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Leah Dunne had just finished moving into her dorm room in Ernie Davis Hall on Thursday when she received a notification that Syracuse University was putting the building under quarantine.

SU had detected traces of the coronavirus in the building’s wastewater, leading the university to instruct all students to return to their rooms for testing. After quarantining at a hotel until Thursday to comply with New York state’s health guidelines, Dunne, a junior, would have to go back into quarantine before she could even attend her first in-person class. 

“I spent all day rushing to move my stuff in to go to my first in-person class at 6:30 p.m. and see my close friends after, but then found out that wouldn’t be possible,” said Dunne, a newspaper and online journalism and political science major. “I was frustrated it happened the day I got here and this being the first dorm to have this situation happen.” 

Ernie Davis’ closure — which ended just over 24 hours after it began when all residents’ test results came back negative — was the first demonstration of how SU would quarantine a residence hall potentially exposed to the virus. Ernie Davis residents told The Daily Orange that, aside from a few complications, the university handled the situation relatively smoothly. 

Every resident of Ernie Davis was tested Thursday afternoon. The quarantine ended the next day, and students were able to leave their rooms. Residents said they were initially concerned that the quarantine would last much longer.

“The idea of a quarantine for 24 hours or 48 hours wasn’t too daunting, but obviously if it was more long-term that would’ve been a little more concerning,” said David Bruen, an Ernie Davis resident and a sophomore policy studies and political science major. 

University officials told students not to leave their dorm rooms unless they needed to use the restroom or pick up meals delivered to their floor, said Stephen Brooks, a sophomore international relations major and an Ernie Davis resident. 

The dining center at Ernie Davis Hall was closed as residents in the building went into quarantine. Emily Steinberger | Photo Editor

Ernie Davis was the first residence hall where SU’s wastewater surveillance program detected traces of COVID-19. SU announced Friday that it had detected less pronounced traces of the virus in Sadler Hall’s wastewater, but the university determined the situation did not warrant a quarantine of the building. Instead, SU opted to test all Sadler residents. 

The test results from Sadler residents all came back negative, the university announced Sunday morning.

University officials pointed to residents in both Ernie Davis and Sadler who had recently recovered from COVID-19 as potential sources of the virus’ presence in the wastewater. These students could continue shedding the virus after recovering but do not pose any risk of spreading it.

For sophomore Alex Casas, the building’s closure made it feel like the virus was affecting him more directly than ever before.

“(Quarantining) was kind of surreal because I’ve only seen COVID-19 from a distance,” said Casas, an information technology major and Ernie Davis resident. “My friend’s mom has it, or I know people on TV who have it, but I’ve never been so close to it, so it was really strange.”

Thursday’s announcement also came as a sudden disruption to many Ernie Davis residents’ schedules. 

Brooks was getting ready for his gym reservation at Ernie Davis Fitness Center when he got an email that his reservation was canceled. Shortly after, he got a text and an email from the university instructing him to stay in his room. 

Arjun Menon, a sophomore broadcast and digital journalism major living in Ernie Davis, woke up from a nap and saw texts from friends telling him about the quarantine. 

After students returned to their dorms, SU’s testing team came around to each floor to test students using pooled saliva tests, the same testing strategy that the university used to screen students upon arrival. 

University officials knocked on students’ doors and verified that they had not eaten or drank anything within 30 minutes or brushed their teeth within three hours of taking the test.

“I got the text message, I got to my dorm and maybe two minutes later they started testing everybody and making sure we stayed in our rooms,” Casas said. 

The university also asked any students who had used Ernie Davis’ dining hall or gym to receive testing on the Quad as soon as possible. SU did not find traces of COVID-19 in the sewer connected to Ernie Davis’ dining hall. 

For many Ernie Davis residents, the most disappointing part of the quarantine was the food, specifically Thursday night. Thursday’s dinner consisted of ramen noodles, applesauce and cereal, Bruen and Brooks said. 

Students received prepared meals delivered to floor lounges while in quarantine. Nick Robertson | Editorial Editor

Both Brooks and Bruen said that they understand that the university was rushed to bring them dinner after locking down the building just hours before. For Friday’s meals, students were able to request meals through an online portal, which was an “improvement,” Brooks said. 

Students immediately began leaving their dorm rooms as soon as they heard the quarantine had been lifted. 

Dunne heard cheering down her hall as soon as they received the notification that the residents’ tests had come back negative. Bruen began seeing messages in his floor’s GroupMe chat that said “we’re free.” 

“People just start(ed) to run out of the building, which is fair,” Bruen said. “Some people really can’t coop themselves up for that long.”

Published on September 6, 2020 at 10:19 pm

Contact Mira: mlberenb@syr.edu