Duke's financial situation isn’t as bad as some feared it would be due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the University is still looking to buy time before loosening spending.
A recent policy change in North Carolina vaccine distribution has shifted college and university students to the back of the line, making the timeline for student vaccination unclear.
In a Wednesday email to all undergraduate students, Deb Lo Biondo, interim dean of Housing and Residence Life, and Christopher Rossi, assistant vice president of student affairs, wrote that the University plans to resume some pre-pandemic housing policies in the fall 2021 semester.
The University announced Tuesday that 20 people tested positive for COVID-19 out of 22,738 tests conducted on 11,971 students, faculty and staff from Feb. 8 to Feb. 14.
As of right now, events can involve a maximum of 10 people, must follow state and local COVID-19 guidelines and must be approved 14 days beforehand by University Center Activities and Events staff.
The Karsh Alumni and Visitors Center has taken on a new role during the pandemic, serving as a center for COVID-19 vaccinations.
Students are eager to eat inside, but there is no set timeline for the return of indoor dining at Duke.
A week after administrators sent out a video warning of a potential increase in campus safety precautions, Duke’s positive COVID-19 test numbers decreased for the second consecutive week.
While many students are experiencing on-campus living for the first time this semester, others decided to take leaves of absence after being at Duke in the fall.
Many non-Greek selective living groups have been rethinking their usual rush processes in this unusual semester.
Duke reported its second COVID-19 cluster of the semester on Tuesday among five graduate students who attended a birthday party.
During each week since Jan. 11, Duke has conducted more surveillance tests for asymptomatic students, faculty and staff than any week last semester. Vice President of Administration Kyle Cavanaugh wrote in an email that for the spring 2021 semester, Duke’s surveillance testing program will be conducting more than 20,000 tests each week.
Almost half of students rated social isolation as “very” or “extremely” stressful. Just under 10% of respondents said they were lonely “most of the time” or “always." Many participants reported experiencing “moderate (23.5%) or severe (20.5%) symptoms of depression and anxiety over the past two weeks.”
Run through the Bleachr app, the virtual tenting platform allows students to form “tents” of up to ten people each in order to compete in challenges and virtual tent checks and accumulate points.
Some international students lived on campus this semester but did not move onto Duke’s campus last semester for a variety of reasons. Although being away from campus was challenging, adjusting to life at Duke after returning could be hard as well.
Duke has placed two campus organizations on interim suspension since Jan. 1, and 17 students have faced individual sanctions that may become part of their conduct records, administrators wrote in a Thursday email to undergraduates.
Administrators on Tuesday warned of the possible future need for new campus restrictions or a move to remote learning, the same day that the number of positive tests Duke has reported this semester surpassed the total for the fall.
To many Duke students, lab work is an essential ingredient to academic success in science, technology, engineering and math fields. For Duke professors on the other side of the equation, it can be just as important a tool for instruction and research.
Much has changed in the East Campus dining hall. Indoor seating is closed for students. Most tables and chairs are wrapped in caution tape. Stickers line the floor, indicating the direction students should travel and the six-foot distance they should keep while standing in line. Workers praised Duke's overall efforts to keep the virus spreading, but said they have been tested infrequently and questioned the decision to put a testing location in the same building.
On Tuesday, North Carolina reported 3,978 new COVID-19 cases, the lowest number in the month of January, but virus levels remain high across the state.
