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The Pennsylvania College of Technology recently amended its student code of conduct to specifically address behaviors that could jeopardize the health of students as well as the community as the total number of positive cases of COVID-19 at the college has risen to 56, 16 active, as of Monday.
"The college began the semester with a call to action for all campus community members to take mitigation efforts seriously and to comply with college policies and procedures related to COVID-19," said Anthony J. Pace, dean of academic operations and chair of the college's COVID-19 task force.
According to Pace, the expanded student code of conduct now includes sanctions for "willful or negligent actions or facilitating conduct that could endanger the health and safety of oneself or other students or members of the college community or which could have a substantial adverse effect upon the college, whether on college property or off campus."
Although the sanctions were not specified, Pace said that the college has "no intention of blaming students who become ill; rather, we focus our efforts on educating them about community health and personal accountability."
He noted that the "overwhelming majority of positive cases to-date have been in students residing off-campus."
Even with the rise in the number of cases, at the present time, the college has no plans to switch to a remote platform of instruction.
"The college has planned for a variety of contingencies in the event that our campus metrics indicate we need to temporarily change our modality of instruction," Pace said.
"We remain committed to in-person instruction, as of today, we have no plans to switch to remote learning," he stressed.
The college reported its first positive test result on July 28. Since then the total positive cases have included 51 students and five employees.
When there is a suspected case of COVID-19, then patient is tested by the college's Health Services, which asks the person to provide names and contact information for those with whom they live, as well as any other intimate contacts they have who might be at exceptional risk due to extended close contact.
"Those individuals are then notified to immediately quarantine, pending the result of the COVID-19 test," Pace explained.
If any of those people test positive, they must isolate for a minimum of 10 days. If, after that time, the patient has experienced an improvement in symptoms and has not had a fever for at least 24 hours, they will be permitted to return to daily activities, Pace said.
"Those who live with, or have intimate contact with a positive-testing individual are informed that they must quarantine for of minimum of 14 days," he added.
Penn College students who need to quarantine or isolate can choose to remain on campus. Pace noted that so far the college has not exceeded 50 percent of the total isolation space available on campus.
A second part of contact tracing protocol includes interviewing the positive individual to retrace their steps from 48 hours prior to the onset of symptoms to the time of testing and isolation.
Pace explained that the purpose of this interview is to identify anyone who has been in close contact with the positive individual. Close contact is considered being closer than six feet from the affected persons without a mask for more than 15 minutes. These individuals are then notified and instructed to quarantine for 14 days from the date of their last contact with the person who tested positive.
The state's Department of Health is notified of all positive cases at the college by the college's testing agency.
Whether students need to isolate or quarantine, Pace said that the college ensures that they can continue their coursework in a timely fashion.
Because many of the areas of study at the college require hands-on instruction, prior to the return of students in the fall, the college made a number of modifications to instructional areas and others places on campus such as dining halls to lessen the possibility of infection.
The college requires that all students, employees and visitors wear masks at all time and signs have been placed throughout the campus to alert people to the guidelines. Other mitigation measures instituted at the reopening of classes include social distancing, temperature checks and cleaning protocols.