Purdue suspended 36 students for partying. It shows how the coronavirus can't stop keggers and college reopenings are doomed.
Aug 22, 2020, 03:29 IST
- Students at Purdue University signed a pledge that they would protect themselves and their fellow classmates from spreading the coronavirus — but some have already been suspended for violating it, according to CBS News. Classes don't start until next week.
- Circle Pines Cooperative, an off-campus student house, held a party Wednesday night. The Purdue University Police Department responded, and noted a complete lack of social distancing and mask wearing. Members of the co-op and party attendees, numbering 36, were all suspended from school.
- Purdue Exponent, a student newspaper, reported that the dean of students sent the student body a strongly worded letter earlier that day: "Plainly stated, hosting or attending gatherings and parties where social distancing is not possible and masks are not worn represent violations of the Protect Purdue Pledge," the dean wrote. "If you don't abide by rules, there is no place for you here."
- Purdue's party and subsequent suspensions shouldn't come as a surprise. Some colleges, like UNC — where students have been seen participating in slip-n-slides — and Notre Dame have already rolled back their reopening plans, just a week after welcoming students back to campus.
- After UNC's closure, one senior who was opposed to the school's haphazard reopening told Business Insider: "Expecting college students to follow any type of social distancing guidelines when they are conditioned to socialize is unrealistic."
- Parties continue to rage on elsewhere. At Syracuse, over 100 students gathered on the quad Wednesday night, some without masks. According to student newspaper The Daily Orange, 23 students were suspended as a result
- At the University of North Georgia, videos have surfaced of a full-fledged block party happening outside an off-campus apartment complex. Meanwhile, an entire sorority house is currently under quarantine at Oklahoma State University after 23 members tested positive for the coronavirus.
- Even though just 35% of US colleges plan on some kind of in-person reopening, it's proving disastrous for the ones that are.
- One Yale administrator even said: "We all should be emotionally prepared for widespread infections — and possibly deaths — in our communities."
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