Nya Sylvester/Contributing Writer
FIU Housing received over 700 students this spring semester who are now dorming on campus, in the midst of the pandemic, according to Housing and Residential Life.
This spring more students returned to campus as the university offers more in-person classes. FIU Provost Kenneth Furton said this semester 53.8 percent of classes have some in person component, compared to 26.7 percent last semester.
“The residential population has increased by 15 percent from the fall semester,” said Andrew Naylor, senior director of Housing and Residential Life.
Students worry the increase in residential housing will cause cases to go up.
Vanessa Lopez, desk assistant at Lakeview South dorm building at the Modesto Maidique Campus is concerned with the recent influx of residents. She is afraid the increase in students dorming during a pandemic will cause a spike in COVID-19 cases on campus.
“I don’t understand why they’ve allowed more residents to come despite cases being worse here in Miami,” said Lopez.
There were 352,000 reported COVID-19 cases in Miami-Dade County as of Jan. 22, according to the Florida Department of Health.
FIU has recorded a total of 133 COVID-19 cases among students, faculty and staff since the start of the semester on Jan.11.
Last week, 20 residents on-campus tested positive for COVID-19, according to the FIU dashboard. It marked the second highest number of cases self-reported in a week to the university since last August, following the first week of the semester with 22 cases.
However, Naylor told PantherNOW, “[COVID] cases are leveling and the housing department has a better understanding of the virus now than in fall semester.
In an effort to reduce the number of COVID-19 cases on campus, FIU Housing and Residential Life requires all students returning to campus to receive a negative COVID-19 test.
Ongoing dorm safety protocols include displaying social distance markers and hand sanitizer stations, as well as providing disposable masks to residents.
Naylor said facilities are being sanitized by electrostatic fog machines multiple times a day. This emits clorox and cleaning solutions that sanitize highly touched surfaces.
Alvaro Cordoba, a new resident in Panther Hall, is a freshman and biology major. Cordoba was impressed by other students practicing CDC and University guidelines.
“While walking around and going to eat, I see everybody is socially distant, wearing their mask [and] doing what needs to be done,” he said.
Additionally, the university’s Panthers Protecting Panthers (P3) app, requires students to report possible COVID-19 symptoms every time they visit campus.
Naylor declined to speak on whether COVID-19 vaccinations will be mandatory for residents.
Throughout the fall semester, FIU offered surveillance COVID testing, or weekly testing of random residents. This will continue for the spring semester as well as a requirement.
Ivana Barberis, resident assistant at Panther Hall and sophomore majoring in international business, expressed concerns regarding the effectiveness of this process.
“I don’t think that having surveillance testing makes sense because if you’re going to have some people get tested, then you should just have everybody get tested,” said Barberis.
Students sit socially distanced at movie night presented by Housing and Residential Life. Nya Sylvester/PantherNOW.
Housing and Residential life hosted a socially distant movie night on Jan. 9. Housing staff arranged seats and blankets six feet apart.
This gave students the opportunity to safely socialize in-person before classes began.
“In terms of event planning, COVID… detriments the process, because we really like to do in-person events with residents [which] are the events that engage them the most,” said Barberis. “It’s been really hard to… have residents come out and enjoy their college experience.”
While cases continue to rise, Naylor encouraged students to continue taking precautions to stop the virus from spreading.
“We are all tired, but now is not the time to let our guard down,” said Naylor.
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