U.S. Universities Set up Front-Line Defenses to Keep Coronavirus at Bay
On its sprawling campus in America’s heartland, thousands of miles from China, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has taken aggressive steps to keep the fast-spreading coronavirus away from its classrooms…
On its sprawling campus in America’s heartland, thousands of miles from China, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has taken aggressive steps to keep the fast-spreading coronavirus away from its classrooms and students.
The school, with one of the highest percentages of Chinese students among U.S. universities, has suspended academic programs in China for the spring semester and banned students from traveling to the country for academic-related matters. It has advised faculty and staff to follow federal travel advisories that, as of Friday, warned against going to China.
“We want to take all of the precautions we can so, in the worst-case scenario, we keep our community healthy,” said Robin Kaler, associate chancellor for public affairs at the University of Illinois, 135 miles (217 km) south of Chicago, where the first human-to-human transmission of the disease in the United States was confirmed last week.
More than 350,000 Chinese students are pursuing higher education in the United States and 10,000 American students are enrolled in academic programs in China.
The sheer number of the students, many of whom have traveled to their home country in recent weeks, makes schools a potential incubator for a widespread outbreak in the United States, given the close proximity of dormitory life.
“Colleges and universities are very much on the front line of those because of our role as global institutions,” Sarah Van Orman, chief health officer at the University of Southern California (USC) said. “The challenge is making sure that we are being prudent without overstating the risk.”
In dealing with the new outbreak, officials at U.S. colleges and universities can draw from their experiences with previous public health scares, including the 2003 outbreak of the SARS coronavirus.
A ‘DELICATE BALANCE’
At University of Illinois, with some 5,800 Chinese students, Kaler sees a challenge in keeping the campus free of the new coronavirus without infringing on rights or fanning xenophobia.
There is a need to strike a “delicate balance” between public safety and personal freedom when dealing with a growing public health issue, Kaler said.