Boston University students formed a Facebook group called ‘Say NO to Quarantining in BU residence halls with communal bathrooms’ on Tuesday in protest of a student’s isolation on a floor with a shared bathroom facility. The group had 76 members at press time.
‘There’s kind of a crusade going on on our floor,’ College of Communication sophomore Becca Wilkinson, the group’s creator, said. ‘We really want some justification, if there are better places to quarantine someone why were they put here, when we could all get infected on a healthy floor.”
Wilkinson, who lives on the third floor of the Myles Standish Annex, said she saw a student move into an empty room on Sunday morning and notified the rest of the floor.
After complaining to the Residence Hall Director, the students were assured that it was fine to share a bathroom with a person exhibiting flu-like symptoms, she said.
‘They basically told us to go somewhere else to use the bathroom if we were that bothered by it,’ she said. ‘We were not too pleased about that.”
Wilkinson said she is confused by the decision to put an ill student on a floor where they have to share a bathroom with 20 girls.
Student Health Services Director David McBride did not respond to repeated requests for comment.’ ‘
BU spokesman Colin Riley said the group’s formation is an overreaction.’
‘Everyone should understand that this type of overreaction is unnecessary and irrational and creates hysteria,’ he said.’
Riley said the policy is isolation, not quarantine, and said empty rooms around campus are being used for the purpose of separating ill students from their roommates while they recover.’
‘This is not sending [ill students], just to be next to her or next to the people on the floor,’ he said
Riley said each person is given guidelines while in isolation, which include wearing a mask when they leave their room for any reason, including using facilities.
‘ ‘To suggest the policy is contributing to the spread of disease is not based on fact,’ he said. ‘Medical professionals are aware of how we are handling this.’
The isolated student, School of Management sophomore Xinyu Li, said she was instructed to move from Shelton Hall to the Myles Annex after getting a 102-degree fever on Sunday. She said she was not given a checklist or written guidelines during the process and felt neglected throughout.
‘ ‘My roommates and I had to carry my stuff over early in the morning, when I had a 102 fever,’ she said. ‘No one helped us.”
Upon arrival, Li said she received instructions to use a mask whenever she left the room or whenever someone came in the room. Originally, she said, she had to check in with the RA every two hours, but that procedure ended after the first day.
In addition, she had problems getting food from her ‘flu buddy’ and contacted the Office of Residence Life.
‘The ORL office said it’s not their responsibility to get me food,’ she said. ‘They didn’t do anything, they just put me there.”
She contacted SHS on Monday after her fever had subsided.
‘It was really weird,’ she said. ‘Because the nurse was supposed to check on me, but when I called back, they said there was no record of me calling Student Health Services.’
She said she left Myles Annex Tuesday after 24 hours without a fever, as SHS instructed, she said.’
‘I had to ask them,’ she said. ‘If I didn’t say anything, I would’ve probably stayed there.”
Riley said BU cannot universalize everyone’s experience and did not comment on the particular case.
Becky Papa, parent of College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Katie Papa, a resident on the floor, is a member of the Facebook group.
‘ ‘If they’re going to quarantine students, then they need to quarantine them and not allow them to be placed in a room where they have no choice but to use the public bathroom,’ she said.
School of Education sophomore Lauren Lutz, who lives at 575 Commonwealth Ave., said her dorm has private bathroom so she is generally unaffected by the circumstances. However, she joined the group because she wants to increase awareness on the issue.
‘I wish more people on campus are aware of what’s going on around them and where they live and where the swine flu is being contained,’ she said.
Staff writer Annie Ropeik contributed to the’ reporting of this article.
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