Is making Undergraduates self-isolate torture?

[MyStudyLife]

Lots of Fresher undergraduates are in households of one because they have no shared facilities with anyone else (this may happen if they're in catered accommodation).

I am terribly worried that so many undergraduates are made to self-isolate for 14 days if tracked and traced (even if they have a negative test result) which is tantamount to solitary confinement if they're in a household of one. This will have tragic consequences, especially if it happens more than once as it may well do going forward. My daughter is in a one person household and it's heartbreaking to see how anxious she is about this. What can be done to persuade those universities and colleges that have placed 18 and 19 year olds into single households to reconsider their decisions? There needs to be some sort of Support Buddy system.

According to the UN, solitary confinement exceeding 15 days is torture and yet thousands of 18 and 19 year olds are just expected to undergo 14 days of this with potential cycles all term.

My daughter started at university a week and a half ago and came home last week as all her friends ended up in solitary confinement. She spoke to the college Welfare Officer about this and was told she wasn't allowed to be absent from college. The best advice given when she said how worried she was about going back to almost certain self-isolation (2/3 of Freshers at her Oxford college are in self-isolation) was to get a Netflix account. I am so angry about this. How can a college not see that self-isolation for 14 days is inhumane and a better system needs to be created? I'm far less worried about her catching Covid than being on her own for 14 days. Most of my daughter's friends at other universities and Oxbridge colleges are having fun if they're isolating because they have households of 6 or 8 or even more. What should I do? If she doesn't go back, she could lose a place she worked so hard to gain. If she goes back, she is highly likely to endure at least one fortnight of miserable loneliness. Any advice?

I sincerely hope that ALL universities will review their policies following the sad death of a Manchester Uni student in self isolation yesterday.

That is awful I agree. Is this in a college type situation? We had small rooms for one. There is no way you could have stayed shut up in one. Impossible.

Yes, I really hope so. Poor, poor boy and his family. Truly awful.

Yes, she's in a small room in college. I'm worried about her, of course, but I'm worried about all students going through this. The media attention has been on college parties but it's ignored what seems to be a hidden section of freshers. We know of one girl who ended up in solitary for 24 days.

It's a horrible situation and the universities have shamelessly profiteered by encouraging students to book into their accommodation even though most work is online and could be done from home.
What do you mean by a household of one though? Is she on a corridor? Or in a bedsits? Could she possibly join up with others in the same block to form a "household" or a "bubble"?
As a mum of a DC who has spent 3 weeks locked down (and caught covid) I really feel for you. Once better our DD came home and is working from here, to avoid further lockdown, as other students come down with symptoms. Even though she is probably very unlikely to catch it again.
She is committed yo paying the £130 a week though.

Oh and DDs accom has threatened that anyone displaying a covid related poster in their window will be evicted. Even one simply saying "stay strong".
Whatever happened to freedom of speech.

DD is in a single room with en suite at York, but she and 11 others all share the same kitchen so the whole floor is classified as a household and they will have company if they all have to isolate, which is a little better than just isolating all by themselves.

I have been worried about this. In catered accommodation with en-suite a n isolating dc could see no one for 14days.
I had a real fear for ds at the beginning of term as he is a massive extrovert who didn’t even work in his bedroom at home, he always came downstairs to be amongst other people. 14days without contact would have been awful for him and he generally has pretty good mental health.
Now that he’s been there a couple of weeks I’m less worried because where people are isolating in his staircase, he WhatsAppS if they want deliveries etc, food from Tesco, when their lunch etc is delivered they prop their doors open and he sits on stairs 2i or 3 meters away and chats while they eat etc.

So while it’s still not good I do think he would have some contact. I agree the unis that have shared kitchens/flats seem much better. He’s said that if the whole staircase (12 student)was one bubble, lockdown would probably be quite fun)

As I said ds is a real extrovert so knows lots of people after 2/3 weeks but I also worry for the more introverted that we’re perhaps just finding their feet.
I agree I am much more worried about 18year olds away from home for the first time, finding themselves in a new unfamiliar situation and unable to help themselves by going out and doing things than I am about Covid. In normal times you’d tell a homesick fresher to go out and find people or things to do. Now they could be stuck on their own dwelling on stuff.
I’m more confidant ds will manage 14 days isolation now than I was a couple of weeks ago but it’s still not ideal. I wish the college had thought about people isolating and allowed them to mingle amongst themselves.

Not torture, no, but it's awful.

OP, yes it is torture. My DS is in an empty flat and has gone from having a lovely first few weeks to feeling deeply alone and very low. Other flats have up to 10 people in. He has one other flatmate who is never there. So effectively, a bubble of 1.

If your DD's work is mainly online, how would they know if she was there or not? She can just log in from home. If there are issues due to safety regs (them needing to know who is in the building) she could argue that she has to go home for her MH. They can't insist she lose her place if she is keeping up with all her online work just because she leaves the HoR. There'd be an outcry. Could you collect her and have her self isolate at home for two weeks?

They are being shafted. The unis have not paid nearly enough attention to the reality of teenagers leaving home for the first time with no social structure, no contact, no variety, no support or security, but a twilight world they were not at all prepared for.

I feel so sorry for them.

Isolation is literally a form of torture. It's used as punishment for good reason. It disorients people. It quickly affects their sleep and eating patterns, their energy levels, their mood and attention span, and abilities to function socially when reintroduced to people.

People will say no and they just have to get on with it, but I think it's wrong to confine people to a tiny room. Even prisoners are allowed out for exercise, even though they are also being confined to their cells far more than is healthy.

14 days in a tiny room is no fun. And it can keep rolling on as more people get infected, or get repeated - you get out for a few days and then someone else gets it. If I thought this was going to be repeated next year I would definitely tell ds to live at home and then move to campus in his second year. At least if you are at home you can go out and do things and don't have officious university security guards shouting at you.

I cannot imagine it. We had tiny rooms in a college. The thought of being cooped up in there for that long is ridiculous. I don’t know the word but it’s too much.

Prisoners in cells for 23 hours also just as bad.

DDs accom has threatened that anyone displaying a covid related poster in their window will be evicted. Even one simply saying "stay strong

wouldn't that be a good thing :) at least they'd be allowed out.

Unless it's in the terms a student has signed, it's not enforceable. And even then is it a fair term? I would say not. They can try all they like, I'd like to see a judge accept that displaying a poster was adequate grounds for eviction unless it was something really tasteless.

I think torture is a bit of a strong word in this context. Those self isolating have means to communicate with others, will be able to continue their learning and have access to entertainment. So no it’s not “torture” or anything like the solitary confinement experienced in situations of incarceration.

Perhaps a better use of energy is to persuade the College authorities to designate staircases/corridors as “households” for Covid purposes.

Is there no interaction online with people on her course? Or in societies? My daughter is a fresher, so I do know what you mean about the small rooms and isolation. She does have a household, but hasn't really connected with them and there's no shared social space. However, there is quite a lot of interaction online. They chat about the lectures and exchange notes about the course work. She's still in touch with all her friends from home and is attending virtural meet-ups for the various societies she's joined. So yes, it's a bit shit. But it's really not as shit as being in solitary confinement without access to all those things.

DDs accom has threatened that anyone displaying a covid related poster in their window will be evicted. Even one simply saying "stay strong

So they are not allowed to express or communicate emotions about their plight? What happened to freedom of speech?

@AChickenCalledDaal - I think it really varies uni by uni. DS has joined 9 clubs and societies and says every single one of them seems dead. There are message boards but he's the only person posting on them. No online chat or activities just tumbleweed.

Yes that is a bit rubbish "dolphinpose". I guess there is quite a lot of variation in how active societies etc are in normal times. DD is at St Andrews, where the students are quite used to making their own entertainment due to the lack of night life in a small seaside town. They seem to be doing a reasonable job of sustaining things online. Not perfect. But reasonable.

That's interesting @AChickenCalledDaal. The unis where it's more normal to make your own fun are going to be better set up to cope. DS is in Central London where the uni provides very little because London does it all, usually. But there's nothing - or very little - put on instead,

Aren't they just following government requirements though? To self isolate if you've been exposed.

These rules have been in place for months now, and I would have thought students and parents would have been aware this was going to be the case before moving in. As awful, and lonely as it is, I don't think students should be exempt from the rules, for the safety of the public.

you are allowed bubbles though. So any student alone in a room would be able to bubble with someone else and visit etc. Definitely worth looking into if your child is alone! The bubble rule seems to have been set up for times like this where people have to isolate alone.

I'd also recommend ringing the University yourself and chatting about wanting to move her out if you feel it isn't safe. If the Uni is doing online learning then it wouldn't matter where she is based, they wouldn't even need to know. All you would have to do is inform halls that she doesn't live there anymore. The only reason I could think of that they'd say she shouldn't leave would be if she's already in the middle of a self isolation period, and then I guess they're just following the government guidelines by advising her not to come and go.

I have been against all the mandatory measures since March on civil liberties grounds (and other grounds) The trouble is MPs gave the state too much power in the March Coronavirus Act 2020 so it my not be too easy to challenge it; although last week German courts over turned the closing pubs early law there because there was no provable science that it worked.

Also not everyone can do on line things . My son has an eye problem and even with a new glasses prescription it is still bad so he has to limit screen time.

When my DD confirmed her place at Swansea, she was told that she would be in a bubble with her flat (10 students).

She shares a kitchen but has her own bathroom.

She is fine and doesn’t feel isolated at all.

Are DCs who feel they have to isolate taking the guidance too far? Unless they are Covid + or are a close contact, they don’t need to isolate.

@dolphinpose

OP, yes it is torture. My DS is in an empty flat and has gone from having a lovely first few weeks to feeling deeply alone and very low. Other flats have up to 10 people in. He has one other flatmate who is never there. So effectively, a bubble of 1.

If your DD's work is mainly online, how would they know if she was there or not? She can just log in from home. If there are issues due to safety regs (them needing to know who is in the building) she could argue that she has to go home for her MH. They can't insist she lose her place if she is keeping up with all her online work just because she leaves the HoR. There'd be an outcry. Could you collect her and have her self isolate at home for two weeks?

They are being shafted. The unis have not paid nearly enough attention to the reality of teenagers leaving home for the first time with no social structure, no contact, no variety, no support or security, but a twilight world they were not at all prepared for.

I feel so sorry for them.

If there has been an exodus in your DS’s flat, perhaps there has been similar in other flats and he can move into an empty slot.

dolphin I think a legal test case on that might be useful - if it is lawful for a university to withdraw the university place from someone who goes home for 2 weeks when sick or mentally ill (if they can do that movement/journey lawfully other than university rules).