College parties are coronavirus powder kegs. Here’s how schools are trying to stop them. - NJ.com

A day after Professor Richard Wolfson taught his first online class Aug. 26, two of his students were already ordered to quarantine for two weeks as a precaution.

“They said, ‘We did something stupid. We won’t be doing it again,’” the Montclair State University professor recalled.

It’s one of many inevitable challenges colleges and universities are facing this fall as many try to offer some in-person classes and students move into dorms or off-campus apartments.

Higher education officials across New Jersey say they are trying everything to get students to avoid the kind of risky parties that could lead to an outbreak of the coronavirus. Banning visitors and gatherings in dorms. Requiring students to sign pledges that they will act responsibly, with serious consequences if they don’t. Some say they will enforce bans on parties even off-campus, while others say they really can’t.

What’s at stake is obvious. Nationwide, numerous colleges and universities have blamed reckless student behavior for outbreaks that required classes to move from in-person to online instruction.

In New Jersey, health officials say they are concerned about cases climbing among college-age population — so much so that residents ages 19 to 24 now have the highest positivity rate in the state. State Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli on Friday cited “anecdotal reports of social gatherings like end-of-summer parties and back-to-school parties” in explaining the rise, although it remains unclear how many of those might have been connected to college campuses.

While New Jersey institutions said students have overwhelmingly been compliant, there have been incidents. At Rutgers, where most undergraduate classes are online, police broke up a 100-person off-campus party Aug. 28.

Already, 10 students at Stockton University and a fraternity and party organizer at the New Jersey Institute of Technology are facing disciplinary actions for parties. Montclair State suspended 11 students from on-campus housing due to parties where students were not social distancing.

Wolfson, the president of AFT Local 1904 at Montclair State, said he is concerned about the risk from the unavoidable parties.

“There are 20 other universities that opened in early August that had spikes in positive testing within two weeks of kids coming back to campus,” he said. “Why would we be any different?”

But there are some reasons to hope things could go more smoothly in New Jersey.

“We’re by no means out of the woods here, but there are a few factors working in our favor,” said Robert Kelchen, a higher education professor at Seton Hall University who tracks college reopenings.

Alexandra Machinski, a freshman student from Scotch Plains, moves into her dorm room at Stockton University in Galloway Township, Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020.Joe Warner | For NJ Advance Medi

He said the Garden State has fewer known party schools and one of the lowest transmission rates in the country. And students here might take rules more seriously because they have seen just how bad a viral outbreak can be.

“People have been scarred by the last five months and how hard the state has been hit,” Kelchen said.

So far, New Jersey colleges and universities report lower case numbers than many institutions across the country. Of the schools here reporting cases publicly, most list between zero and four cases since the semester started, and some of those schools have had students on campus since mid-August.

Rowan University, the state’s third largest, reported 129 student cases by its second week of classes. Seventy-four of them were never on campus, but the other 55 were either living in dorms or at the campus for other reasons.

The College of New Jersey has 51 cases, all among students who live off campus. In a statement, the school said it has not been able to “establish definitively” whether the cases are tied to off-campus parties.

Many schools in New Jersey reported no problems with big parties over Labor Day Weekend, and they are hoping it stays that way.

“I think most students will do a good job but there’s little room for error,” Kelchen said. “It’s hard to tell students, ‘You aren’t getting the college experience you expected.’”

Rowan University staff assemble "wellness kits," including thermometers and masks, that were given to students living on campus.Courtesy Rowan University

How they’re doing it

The message is everywhere. On a banner when they’re walking to class. When they’re logging into the school’s online network. It might even come from a landlord or staffer knocking on the doors of off-campus apartments.

The message is that compliance is cool. College officials know that they need student buy-in to the idea that the success of the semester and the health of the community is on everyone’s shoulders.

“I think the vast majority of students and employees on campus are really taking it seriously,” said Montclair State spokesperson Joe Brennan. “They’re saying things like, ‘I really hope everyone follows these rules so we can stay back and we don’t have to go completely online.’”

Some things, like restrictions on dorm visitors and the use of dorm common areas, were mandated by the state. But many of the rules and methods for achieving compliance vary by campus.

Montclair State is allowing one guest per dorm room, while William Paterson University said people can only visit students living in their residence hall. At Stockton and New Jersey City University, students aren’t allowed in any dorm room that isn’t their own. Ramapo College made a chart for students to see the maximum number of students allowed in each unit, ranging from six to 12, depending on its size.

When it comes to limiting student gatherings on-campus, some schools said they wrote new rules into residence hall contracts, the codes of conduct or the pledges all students are required to take and abide by.

At Montclair State and William Paterson University, officials are encouraging students to report their peers who are violating any of the new rules, from mask-wearing on campus to throwing parties.

Some schools have also told students they won’t be allowed on campus if they have risked exposure to the virus. But new public health guidance recommends keeping potentially-exposed students quarantined in their residences, instead of sending them home, to prevent community spread.

Montclair University has since reversed its policy on suspending housing for those students, which happened to 11 students (none of whom were sick, Brennan said).

Even though it wasn’t a disciplinary move, Brennan said the suspensions “sent a strong message to the community."

Students wear face masks as they walk to classes at Monclair State University on Thursday, September 3, 2020. Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media

Fines, suspensions or a ticket home

Colleges and universities are used to enforcing rules on campus, but the challenge is next-level with their new sweeping social restrictions.

It won’t be easy for resident advisors to keep their charges out of each other’s dorm rooms every night. But enforcing bans on parties and gatherings off-campus is even more complicated.

Schools are divided about how much they can and can’t exercise their authority over off-campus activities.

“We have a lot more control over our residence halls versus those living off-campus,” said Christopher Catching, Stockton University’s vice president of student affairs. “Outside gatherings are a bigger concern because we don’t know who could be there” and whether those people are taking precautions.

The university is still expecting off-campus students to abide by a ban on hosting or attending group gatherings, he said, and at least 10 currently are facing disciplinary actions after Labor Day Weekend parties.

Party-goers congregate on a corner after a large house party near Rutgers is broken up by police Aug. 28, 2020.Josh Axelrod for NJ Advance Media

Rutgers, Rowan and Rider universities and NJIT said they are also enforcing bans on large gatherings off-campus, starting with warnings but including possible suspensions.

“Our approach is to educate those students first and then seek disciplinary action against repeat offenders,” Rutgers said in a statement. “Students who aid and abet non-compliance by hosting large gatherings will face disciplinary action and harsher disciplinary consequences.”

Around Seton Hall, houses that host parties can expect fines up to $500 per resident for a first violation and $1,000 for a second offense, or possible suspension for a third offense, the Setonian reported.

But some schools said they actually can’t impose those rules off their property.

William Paterson University and Montclair State both said their new policies don’t apply off-campus, though everyone is bound by Gov. Phil Murphy’s executive order limiting indoor gathering size to 25 people or 25% of room capacity. (Both schools noted that they do not have a big student population renting in the communities around the universities.)

Other universities said students are expected to abide by the terms of the pledges they were required to sign at the beginning of the semester, including adhering to social-distancing and indoor capacity restrictions. Ramapo College said its code of conduct applies to behavior on- and off-campus.

Other schools are warning students renting in the area that the local police will be aggressively enforcing the state’s gathering size limits off-campus. At Rowan and Monmouth universities, administrators are taking an in-person approach to discouraging parties.

Monmouth University staff and South Orange police visited student rental homes to talk “responsibilities and consequences," said spokesperson Tara Peters said. The flyer they gave out says hosting or attending a social gathering that violates the governor’s executive orders could come with a fine of up to $1,000 and six months in jail.

At Rowan, where usually between 1,500 to 2,000 students rent in the surrounding area, Dean of Students Kevin S. Koett has been visiting “well-known off-campus party houses” to talk with students, spokesperson Joe Cardona said. Cardona said the university has also enlisted the help of many landlords in the area to discourage renters.

“We know of at least three major parties that were canceled after landlords spoke to their tenants,” he said.

While in past years, Labor Day Weekend might mean 100-person parties around town, Cardona said there were no reports of major gatherings last weekend. So far the only serious disciplinary issue was a student who was sent home after a gathering in his dorm room, Cardona said.

“They’re young adults and they’re going to push it. We know there are going to be situations,” Cardona said. “We’re just reminding them constantly to be smart.”

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Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.

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