According to an anonymous source, the rumored “COVID parties” reported earlier in the week took place in an off campus house belonging to a fraternity member. No confirmed cases originated from this party. The cases came from a birthday party that took place the next night.
“It was no more than 20 people spread out through the whole house and backyard,” said the source. “I have COVID right now and am in isolation. I got it from a third party; the state tracked it down and no one got COVID from the party I attended.”
When the source questioned the state about her own sickness, “they said more than likely it originated from the bars.” Due to the confidential nature and potential sanctions against students, no names of the students or investigators of this incident were shared with the Branding Iron.
According to Dean of Students Ryan O’Neil, the university has kept track of large-scale gatherings and is working to limit any chance of spreading COVID-19 as a result.
“There are a number of ways that lead us to suspect that there had been large-scale gatherings,” O’Neil said, “We are asking people to submit any concerns about COVID related student behaviors using our pre-existing platform for student concerns.”
On the weekend in question, the university had been made fully aware of gatherings taking place.
“We did receive some reports of things occurring that weekend using that platform,” said O’Neil. “We had some people contact us anonymously.”
Due to confidentiality, the Branding Iron was unable to confirm if the anonymous reports were related to the gathering mentioned above.
When asked about what constitutes a large gathering O’Neil said, “I think it matters if we are talking a ballroom or a small apartment.” She continued to mention the work that the university spent over the summer “defining a COVID-19 capacity for all spaces.”
“What we would encourage students to think about is, if it is a situation where there can’t be social distancing measures put in place, then that is potentially something that can be considered a large scale gathering,” O’Neil said.
This manner of thinking applies to public spaces as well, including restaurants and bars downtown.
“Of course, we are going to encourage you, like the owners of (shops and businesses)
to wear a mask and follow social distancing,” said O’Neil. “This is really about when one of our community is inviting others into a space where none of these practices are being upheld. It is not about us wanting to enforce more things off campus, trust me. It doesn’t work if you only follow it while you are here on campus.”
