NU students in Quarantine and Isolation Housing may be assigned roommates
Angeli Mittal/Daily Senior Staffer
Weber Arch. Students staying solo in Quarantine and Isolation Housing doubles were instructed to “anticipate having a roommate” in a Thursday email from Residential Services.
January 7, 2022
Northwestern students living alone in Quarantine and Isolation Housing in 1835 Hinman may be assigned a roommate as more on-campus students test positive for COVID-19, Residential Services wrote in a Thursday email.
Hinman has a capacity for 280 students. According to a second email obtained by The Daily, Quarantine and Isolation Housing is not at full occupancy.
According to North by Northwestern’s Housing Guide, there are 56 singles and 80 doubles in Hinman. Students staying in doubles were instructed to “anticipate having a roommate” in the email from Residential Services.
Students were also instructed to remain masked in their rooms when not eating, drinking or sleeping. Some have taken to social media to criticize the announcement, questioning the safety and logic of the policy.
“Covid isolation roommates have to wear masks unless they’re sleeping because, obviously, you can only get covid if you’re awake,” one student wrote on Twitter. “The whole thing scares me because if they’re sticking to a 5 day quarantine, are they resetting the clock on person A’s quarantine if person B moves into the room on the last day? Or does person A just end quarantine as planned?”
Campus entered a two-week Wildcat Wellness quarantine period Jan. 1 and NU is requiring students take one COVID-19 test per week. The University releases weekly COVID-19 data reports on Friday afternoons. No COVID-19 data has been published to NU’s dashboard since Dec. 19, mid-Winter Break.
Students living on campus who test positive are required to isolate in Hinman for up to 10 days, but may be released on the fifth day with a negative rapid antigen test result. Students who live off campus are instructed to self-isolate in their residences and cannot quarantine in Hinman.
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— Northwestern goes remote for first two weeks of January
—The Daily Explains: Wildcat Wellness guidelines and updated winter COVID-19 campus protocols
