ATCHISON, Kan. — UPDATE, 6:20 p.m., Sept. 4 | Benedictine College and Atchison County reached an agreement on Friday for "COVID-19 mitigation."
Beginning on Saturday, students who live on-campus will not be allowed to leave campus except for essential goods, emergency medical or mental appointments or "to fulfill academic requirements," according to a news release.
Students who live off-campus will only be allowed on campus for:
- Authorized athletic practices
- religious serivces
- Work study
- Labs
- "Other necessary academic purposes."
The full plan, called "Atchison and Benedictine: Stronger Together" can be viewed online.
ORIGINAL STORY, Sept. 3 | Benedictine College and the Atchison County Health Department have not been able to come to an agreement about quarantining the college's 2,000 students for 14 days.
Steve Johnson, communications director for the college, said the college was surprised to receive the original order Wednesday evening, which said all 2,000 students needed to be put into quarantine by the next day due to a rise in cases.
The college was able to delay the order and offered a compromise to the health department to quarantine only off-campus students, who would be required to do online classes. Negotiations continued as of 5:30 p.m. Thursday.
Johnson said the college was surprised by the order because the school currently has 37 active cases of COVID-19. He was not able to specify how many of those cases are on-campus versus off-campus.
Johnson said 37 cases is 1.5% of the student population. The health department said to expect a 1-3% positivity rate, Johnson said, so it is not entirely clear why a college-wide quarantine is necessary.
Benedictine College senior Merritt Vaughn said she just got out of a 10-day quarantine and worries about her educational success if she has to do another one.
"I would hope they respect our efforts and intent to continue to serve our community and be a part of it, and to let us safely and intentionally make those decisions for ourselves," Vaughn said.
Junior Emily Carstens said she feels the college has done a good job making students feel safe, especially with the stricter policies it added such as to-go only dining halls.
"I could understand them putting in some stricter policies, but I don't think it's necessary to put all 2,000 students under a mandated quarantine," Carstens said.
Johnson said campus will be business as usual Friday.
