UM returns to on-campus classes after remote start — housing shortages, mask issues

University of Miami students returned to in-person classes Monday after the highly contagious omicron variant prompted administrators to shift to online instruction for the first two weeks of the spring semester.

“We are excited and ready to return to a more conventional academic semester,” said Jeffrey Duerk, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. “The number of cases of COVID-19 are now rapidly declining, and we are confident we will be able to complete the remainder of the semester in person.”

Between Jan. 19 and Jan. 26, 253 students and faculty across campuses tested positive, according to the university’s COVID Dashboard. Between Aug. 15 and Jan. 3, which includes last semester, the university recorded 2,684 positive cases.

Junior Shayma Hammoud Fuentes said she is ready to return to the classroom.

“It’s been hard creating bonds with professors,” said Hammoud Fuentes, a public health and psychology major. “I really like being able to go to the classes rather than having to attend them from my computer. I feel like I’m learning better.”

Although classes were online, students were allowed to return to their dormitories — residential colleges — at the start of the semester.

Campus housing shortage

But a shortage of on-campus housing caused the university to place some new students — mostly freshmen starting college in the spring instead of fall — in hotels and dorm study lounges that were converted into rooms. Forty-four students were assigned to the converted study lounges in Stanford Residential College, according to the university.

Stephanie Perillo and her roommate, a freshman, are living in one on the third floor.

“It was so frustrating because they told me where I was living and who my roommate was five days before I was supposed to come here,” said Perillo, who is from Somerset County, New Jersey, and just started at UM in the spring semester.

Another 120 new students are being housed in THesis, an apartment complex and hotel about a half mile from the Coral Gables campus, and Miami Marriott Dadeland, over three miles away, the university said.

“I’m really happy I’m not in a hotel,” Perillo said. “I would be so upset because this is my only semester to live in a freshman dorm and at least I got to experience that.”

The university said students in the overflow hotels will be relocated to campus “as quickly as on-campus rooms become available,” but those in the converted study lounges will not be reassigned.

“The demand for a University of Miami education is at an all-time high, and the university welcomed a larger-than-typical class of incoming residents for the spring 2022 semester,” university officials said in an email.

In the meantime, all displaced students received a discount on their housing bill for the semester. Those in the hotels receive daily food vouchers and will be shuttled to and from campus for classes each day.

Whether in hotels or not, all students must comply with the university’s COVID testing policy, which required them to test negative within 48 to 72 hours of arrival on campus, regardless of vaccination status. They must continue to test twice per week during the semester if they are unvaccinated.

About 85% of students across all campuses are fully vaccinated, which the university now defines as having received three doses of a COVID vaccine, UM said.

Masks are “mandatory in all indoor public and common spaces and are strongly encouraged outdoors in group settings,” according to the latest email sent to students confirming in-person classes Monday.

Students not complying with mask mandates

Liliana Bravo, a resident assistant in charge of one floor of freshmen at Stanford, said many students don’t wear face coverings in her dorm.

“It doesn’t matter how many masks we offer; it doesn’t matter how many warnings we give, they don’t care,” Bravo said. “If I had to write an incident report for every person I see without a mask in the building … I wouldn’t live. Like, I would not have a life.”

Scotney Evans, an associate professor in the School of Education and Human Development, said he is also concerned with mask complacency, especially in shared spaces like the Herbert Wellness Center, the on-campus fitness center.

“There was a pretty large group of students wearing masks around their chins even though it is clearly communicated that masks are required and are to be worn correctly in all indoor spaces,” Evans said about one workout experience there last week. “The staff did their best to get students to comply, but masks returned to the chins when staff walked away.”

Evans, president of the UM chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said he is nevertheless optimistic about the university’s response to keep the campus community safe.

“I’ve been pretty critical of UM administrative decisions in the past,” Evans said. “But I do feel like we are all doing the best we can under the circumstances to balance the safety needs of the university population and surrounding community with our commitment to deliver quality learning experiences and some semblance of a vibrant campus life for students.”

CommunityWire.Miami is the graduate journalism news service of the University of Miami.

This story was originally published January 31, 2022 at 7:40 PM.