On sunny days my three roommates and I used to enjoy sitting on our front porch talking and drinking beers. Now out of fear of ridicule from our peers or potential punishment from the university, we choose to drink our beers inside.
Quarantine has been a long seven months, at least half of which I’ve spent with my roommates in Eugene. All of us are taking COVID-19 very seriously, especially since I tested positive in June. We have been getting tested once a week and not spending time with other groups. I think what we do on our porch is no one’s business but our own, since we’re not putting anyone at risk, but I still receive negative messages and bad looks from passersby. The COVID-19 behavioral form and Instagram page @covid.campus have cultivated a hostile environment where I no longer trust other students to respect my privacy.
More than once I have been sitting on my porch with my roommates enjoying what little sun is left only to notice someone walking by, or our neighbors, taking a picture of us.
I am fully in support of COVID-19 resources, and I think people should be held accountable for their actions, but this is not the way to do it. The COVID-19 behavioral form encourages students to tell the university specific details about other students, including their ID number, for a perceived violation of social distancing rules. How is someone I have never met supposed to know that my roommates and I are roommates who have been quarantined together? It is true that the first offense merely receives a warning from the university, but that still means any serial porch sitters like myself are in danger. The behavioral form is only half the issue though.
The instagram page @covid.campus has blown up for posting anecdotes from anonymous people disappointed by the UO community. Some posts provide interesting stories of neglect by the university, like this one from a Barnhart dining employee: “I worked there last year and they failed to tell me that Barnhart was designated as the covid-positive dorm. They expected me to deliver food to students even though they never asked me if I would even be comfortable with it.”
Quotes like this highlight real issues with how the university is handling COVID-19, but many of the other quotes just express animosity toward other students, particularly those who drink.
One such post talks about seeing a group of students walking without masks in the street: “On Friday night I was hanging out at my apartment in the West-University neighborhood when I heard this huge group of (presumably drunk) people walking in the middle of the street. I peaked my head outside to see what was going on only to see one of the frat guys involved yelling about ‘that guy in the yellow jacket’ being a ‘fa**ot.’ I don’t remember ever seeing anything like this before quarantine started so it’s very unsettling.”
This post was very alarming to read because it highlights the animosity in our community. I am in no way defending the use of slurs or violence, but in this story the biggest issue I see is the group being in the street and the appearance of no masks. Students using slurs and being rude amongst their peers is not a new development despite what this quote says, and has nothing to do with COVID-19. Calling these students “dumbasses” might actually be accurate for their use of a slur, but there is no way to tell if this group has quarantined together or all just tested negative.
I think people should be held accountable for their actions, but anonymous stories about the behavior of other students does not accomplish this. The @covid.campus Instagram provides an important and valuable resource for students to voice their concerns, but they should do a better job of making sure posts are about real concerns and not just anger at other students.
I don’t feel comfortable being in public with my roommates at all now, even though we always wear masks. If there isn’t any sense of unity or kinship among students during this crisis, it is going to stay that way even when there is no pandemic.