While other colleges around the nation are experiencing coronavirus outbreaks, Cheyney University has not reported any cases.
Cheyney President Aaron Walton said the university’s success has been due to a number of factors. Since March, the university has been screening for coronavirus symptoms, requiring students to wear face masks, practicing social distancing, limiting on-campus visitors and instituted evening curfews.
“We put all those things into practice and fortunately the students understood that these were the conditions under which we had to operate to keep them safe,” Walton said.
He said since fall classes began on Aug. 10, students are complying with wearing their masks on campus.
“We’ve just finished our sixth week and we’ve not had one complaint from faculty that a student would not wear a mask in class,” Walton said.
According to Walton, everyone is screened for coronavirus symptoms when they enter the campus and the dormitories. If students display any symptoms, they are referred to outside health facilities for testing.
“Fortunately we’ve not had an incident on campus,” Walton said. “It’s nothing short of a miracle. We’re pleased about the compliance of the students.”
The historically Black university has a current enrollment of 628 students. About 76% of the students stay in residential dorms, while 24% are commuters.
Walton said Cheyney’s geographical location and campus layout helps mitigate the risk of the coronavirus spreading on campus.
“Cheyney, from an environmental perspective, is unique in that it does not sit in the middle of a town,” he said. “By us kind of sitting down in a valley with limited access in and out of the university, it gives us greater opportunity to put some safeguards in that other universities that are in a city or in a town really wouldn’t have available to them.”
Earlier this month, the presidents of two HBCUs in New Orleans were criticized after announcing they were participating in a clinical trial for a COVID-19 vaccine and urged their campus communities to do the same. In a joint statement, Dillard University President Walter Kimbrough and Xaiver University President Reynold Verret cited the importance of more Black, Latino and non-white participation in clinical trials.
Walton said he doesn’t see the need to encourage Cheyney students to participate in clinical trials for a vaccine.
“I don’t see a real need right now,” he said. “We’re very focused on mitigating the possibility of having the virus on campus here. I’m not going to subject the students to any issues that I don’t have to right now, with what we’ve put in place to try to protect their health and safety.”
Cheyney is part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, which has experienced more than 800 COVID-19 cases at the other 13 member universities.
Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine issued a warning to college students this week, amid an uptick in cases among 19 to 24-year-olds. She said young adults 19-24 account for 69% of the cases in north central Pennsylvania so far in September. Young adults in this age group accounted for 40% of the cases in northeastern Pennsylvania.
“The most significant different between the case increases that we are seeing now and what we saw in April is that colleges and universities are back in session,” Levine said during a press conference. “College and university students are uniquely positioned now to help change the course of the spread of this virus by changing and adapting your actions to protect yourselves your friends and others in the community.”
A New York Times survey of more than 1,600 American colleges and universities revealed at least 88,000 cases and at least 60 deaths since the pandemic began.
Ayana Jones, Tribute Staff Writer