‘How do you expect people to not be upset at this?’: Students voice concerns

One group feeling blindsided by these changes were students working as resident assistants, or RAs. In a spring training for RAs, questions regarding the new policies were largely ignored by ResLife staff, according to an RA who wished to remain anonymous for fear of professional retaliation.

“I don’t think any of ResLife for some reason anticipated this, which seems kind of unfathomable to me because how do you expect people to not be upset at this?” the RA said. 

In addition to concerns about a potential spike of COVID-19 positives in student housing, the anonymous RA explained that a rise in cases will burden students who work for ResLife with more responsibilities if residents or other RAs get sick. This includes extra shifts in the RA office and doing more rounds. The university, the RA said, has also tried to push for more in-person programming, something that they view as very irresponsible.

“This is going to hurt people. The effects of long COVID are still just being discovered, and the whole neurological damage, and brain fog, and smell and taste loss … it’s just that this is going to be a nightmare,” they said.

The rise of the Omicron variant, which has proven to be more transmissible, even among vaccinated individuals, than earlier iterations of the disease, has some in the Northeastern community alarmed about the changes.

The RA told The News that RAs expect to hear increased calls from residents and complaints from their parents as students get adjusted to the beginning of the semester. RAs also are predicting an uptick in roommate conflicts due to COVID-19 related issues.

“It’s really frustrating and disheartening to watch the university take away protections for not just RAs but students at large,” they said. 

Lauren Su, a first-year pharmacy major who lives in Stetson East, is deeply worried about these updated guidelines. 

“I feel like since Northeastern has been open since the pandemic in 2020 that this would kind of happen, but I wasn’t expecting getting rid of the wellness beds and also like staying in the dorm when your roommate is sick or when you’re sick,” she said.

Another area of concern for Su is sharing communal bathrooms with those who test positive. Su said she believes the university needs to be more clear about how the new procedures will work. 

“I have some friends living in the same dorm as me, and I think we all voiced the same concern of communal bathrooms mainly and also how we’re supposed to get food [if we test positive],” she said. “If we have COVID, the grab-and-go system is good in the sense that you’re not eating in the [dining hall], but also if we have COVID, we don’t want to potentially spread it to other people.”