Students who returned to a college campus this fall are now tasked with readjusting to an entirely alternate way of living. Amid a worldwide pandemic, university culture has quickly evolved from a hub of socialization to a barren place of caution and unease.
Among the many safety regulations and protocols in place to ensure Boston University remains a safe environment for all, the administration implemented serious quarantine and isolation procedures: if, for 15 minutes or more, a student is within six feet of someone who tested positive for COVID-19, they must undergo a close-contact, 14-day quarantine.
For students who live in on-campus housing, this means getting relocated to a special “quarantine room.” Those who carry the virus are sent into isolation until a health care provider clears them to leave.
While the University’s health and safety measures are absolutely necessary and appropriate, there is no denying that being placed in an unfamiliar living space for extended weeks at a time — entirely by oneself — can have a significant emotional tax on any person’s well being.
In terms of education, learning remotely in a solitary condition is obscure and challenging. On top of this, the inability to communicate with the outside world can easily place students in a hazy social and psychological state.
As human beings, we internalize our sense of belonging and connectedness through our relationships with the people and things around us. Our perceived self-identities are heavily dependent on the activities we engage in, the locations we frequent and the loved ones we interact with. By pressing pause on human contact, our natural sources of purpose and acceptance are stripped away.
BU knows this. In an attempt to address the social and educational complications that students exposed to the virus will undergo, the University has created multiple resources and services. Some students in isolation and quarantine have said the administration even calls them personally, as a way to check in on an individual level and to address their well being.
The isolation and quarantine units include food and beverages, as well as options for students with dietary restrictions.
But what is BU failing to acknowledge?
Past the obvious mental toll, social barrier and learning limitation that would place any perfectly healthy and stable person in a state of distress, the conditions of isolation can pose real threats to individuals who specifically suffer from mental health issues relating to food.
Specifically, BU’s food service can present obstacles for people who manage eating disorders or have complex relationships with food.
Students at BU are no different from the mass of people in society who struggle with a range of psychological challenges regarding when we eat, what we eat and how it makes us feel.
In quarantine, students are forced to rearrange their body-food relationships. The selection of generally crowd-pleasing non-perishables and frozen meals to space out throughout the week forces students to manage without the food they normally have access to. They’ll have a harder time monitoring how much to eat at a time and when they should be eating.
To a person who has never confronted complications with food or is unversed in just how deep the spectrum of eating disorders can be, these problems may seem trivial or confusing. In reality, these concerns are not uncommon. They are real, and they are serious.
With our campus community placing a heavy focus on anti-spread measures, the emotional and psychological challenges involved with eating can feel glossed over. But these struggles are especially provoked and intensified at a time like this. It is wrong to assume everyone shares the same relationships with their body and eating.
There cannot be one standard form of addressing students’ needs regarding the food they consume. At the very least, BU should be conscious of what the isolation process can mean for students who struggle in these ways.
While we approach life on campus with extra attention to safety, it is important not to simultaneously pause other serious concerns of human health and wellness. We must be thoughtful of individual struggles on top of the collective challenges we all face during COVID-19 — the toll of these struggles is especially inflamed and elevated at a time like this.
