The Holiday Inn is the hotel that some students who do not have COVID-19 are living in due to housing shortages on campus, while two other undisclosed hotels are hosting quarantined students. Photo by James McIntosh.
Due to limited on-campus housing created by social distancing concerns, the University of Rhode Island reached an agreement with three local hotels to house additional students this semester.
One hotel is being utilized for healthy students as a makeshift residence hall, while the other two hotels are being used as quarantine spaces for students who come in contact with COVID-19. A spokesperson for the University declined to name the hotels involved in the deal due to contractual restrictions.
The residential hotel is home to 21 upperclassmen students and two residential advisors. Sophomore Cassius Benziger, who was assigned to live in the hotel this semester, noticed a distinct difference in sociability between students after having lived on campus last year.
“It’s super quiet,” Benziger said. “It’s not like being in a dorm where you can leave your door open and then say hi to the people that you know. So, I don’t see anyone ever. I just met my RA four times in the month and a half, and she’s right next door to me.”
Although residential advisors regularly patrol the residential hotel space to prevent any mishaps, Benziger said that there are very few safety measures in place to stop students from having guests or spreading the virus.
“There’s no way to track students.” said Benziger, “I don’t think there are many security cameras in the building. There’s not really anything keeping people from coming in.”
According to Frankie Minor, the director of Housing and Residential Life, the quarantine hotel spaces were introduced as an option for off-campus students after seeing a spike in positive coronavirus cases among such students.
“When we began to see the increased [COVID-19 test] positivity of our students occuring was off-campus and the private residents down the line, we pivoted pretty quickly,” Minor said. “So, the majority of our students here at the hotel are students who are currently living off campus.”
There are currently six rooms occupied by COVID-19 positive students at the quarantine hotel space. After a student checks out of the quarantine room, it must be kept vacant for three days to maintain the safety of the sanitation workers and custodial staff in charge of cleaning the rooms.
To ensure student safety, students living in the quarantine hotel space are not permitted outside of their room. Although Minor claimed that most students are compliant with this rule, he reiterated that students who break this rule may be suspended from the University if caught.
“This is not fun and games.” said Minor, “It’s not that we’re trying to catch you, this is about the health and safety of the entire URI community and the staff working here.”
The University will stop assigning students to both quarantine hotels in mid-November. All students will move out of the hotel by Nov. 25 to coincide with the transition to online-only classes after Thanksgiving break.
Access to food has also been a challenge for all students living in all hotels. While students living in the residential hotel space have access to University meal plans, the hotel itself does not provide many amenities for students to prepare food from their rooms.
“I have a limited meal plan, but I also don’t go onto campus everyday.” said Benziger, “They provided a mini fridge, I provided a microwave, so I can go grocery shopping and pick up a couple of things to eat.”
As the quarantine hotel space began accepting more off-campus students without meal plans, the University has begun picking up the cost for room and board for those students. Meals consisting of a standard pack of dried goods, water and Gatorade, a warm meal and a microwavable meal are currently being delivered by campus dining services. Students may also order from independent delivery services like Uber Eats and GrubHub, although ordering hours are restricted to between 12 p.m. and 4 p.m.
URI is still assessing housing capacity and the spread of the coronavirus to determine whether or not they would like to extend their agreement with the hotels into the spring semester.
Minor asks students and families to cooperate as they try to accommodate as many students as they can.
“We spend a lot of time talking to very anxious students and parents,” said Minor. “They’re worried about their own health, they’re worried about the loss of certain freedoms and conveniences and so on. We’re asking them to please be patient with us because their health, their safety and the safety of the entire URI community is our most driving consideration for everything that we do.”