Day Students' Role in Quarantine Examined

By Ethan-Judd Barthelemy, Jessica Huang, Emi Levine and Griffin Li

The Academy community has raised concerns over the role of day students in maintaining a safe quarantine bubble at Exeter. As day students are the only students currently permitted to leave campus, some boarding students have criticized the laxer regulations around day student participation on campus. However, day students have noted that complete exclusion from campus would be unfair, noting that it was often not their choice to be day students.

“If it was my choice, I would say that there should be rules around day students who are coming back to campus, similar to how we can’t go other places and see other people,” boarder and prep Solei Silva-Carin said. “Some day students may be seeing other people without wearing masks and social distancing which could cause them to put other students in danger.”

Boarder and lower Leonor Coles-Vollmer found that the rules for day students were hypocritical. “I just think it’s kind of confusing that day students can go in and out of campus whenever they want, but I can’t go into my friends’ dorms even though we’re in the bubble. But for day students, I don’t think it’s any more dangerous to have them on campus than it is to have in person classes with faculty that also can come in and out whenever.”

Upper Liam Ahern agreed. “Day students live in separate bubbles than the rest of the Exeter community, and the people they live with may have jobs or responsibilities that make it so they have to risk exposure to [COVID],” they said. “It's just the risk of having lots of students from all different bubbles that don't have to follow the same safety guidelines come to campus everyday.”

Boarder and lower Valerie Whitten added that policy on campus might be different without day students. “I think it would lift a lot of restrictions if day studs weren’t here [because] we don’t really interact or even get close to staff and [faculty] on a daily basis to possibly be close contacts compared to day stud friends,” she said. “But I love my day stud friends.”

Boarder and prep Vera Aimunmondion shared sympathy for day students. “I don’t think it’s fair for them to remain off campus because this is their school, too. They deserve to be able to use the resources here too and get a good, well rounded educational experience,” Aimunmondion said.

Day student and lower Rupert Ramsay noted that educational access factors into day students’ presence on campus. “The campus provides us with resources that not all of us can get at home, most of our friends are on campus, and once in-person classes begin, if day students were excluded, it would be much more difficult for us to keep up,” he said.

“Students who are against day students being allowed on-campus should try to understand that is a bit unfair to day students, most of whom work just as hard to follow COVID guidelines and really want to be here as much as any boarder,” day student and prep Elizabeth Catizone added. “I acknowledge that we definitely have more freedom and therefore more opportunities to break rules, but to my knowledge, most day students are treating that privilege with a lot of responsibility.”

Day student and prep Natalie Welling agreed. “While a few day students may not be following the rules, the same goes for many boarders, and it's unfair to judge the entire group of us based off of just a few rule-breakers,” she said. “I'm not sure that everyone realizes that day students make up about 1/5 of the student body, and we have just as much a right as anyone else to be here.”

Day student and senior Owen Fox cited extensive pressure from boarding students. “I feel like everyone is watching out for day students, waiting for them to slip up and do something that breaks the COVID guidelines,” Fox said. “It seems as if people think day students are the only way COVID could possibly be introduced onto campus.”

Concurrently, day students acknowledged their share of responsibility for keeping Exeter’s campus safe. “Some precautions I've been taking are not going to any of my friend's (who don't go to PEA) houses or hanging out with them, limiting trips to the grocery store and other shops, and always sanitizing everything when I do feel it necessary to go out,” Ramsey said.

Foye said that she has made sacrifices to keep herself and others safe. “I didn’t go to the gym for three weeks before coming to campus. I had two jobs, both of which I loved and were my second homes, and I had to leave them. I do my best to only go to the store when necessary, and my only contact outside of the Exeter bubble is my family and getting gas,” she said.

“We [my family] abide by the motto ‘better to be safe than sorry,’” prep Jamie Reidy said. “We [students] must have faith in the policies set forth by our school to limit exposure, and we must also trust that day students will have integrity and act in the best interests of our community,” she added.

“It’s hard to be looked at as a burden at your own school, and it’s even harder when people can’t see day students aren’t the problem,” Foye said. “Exeter is a community, and day students are a part of that community. Just because we have different living circumstances doesn’t mean we should be removed.”