MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia University officials are taking reports of students breaking COVID-19 guidelines seriously.
After several reports of off-campus parties involving WVU students over the weekend, WVU officials are investigating who was at said parties and plan to take disciplinary actions. The decision is being reinforced by several WVU figure heads who are taking the reports seriously, with some students who have been confirmed to be at the parties already facing reprisal from WVU’s Office of Student Conduct.
“As any community has, you know we’ve got those that aren’t going to follow the rules,” said WVU Dean of Students Corey Farris. “Fortunately with our students we’ve got a way to address this quickly and so that’s the process that we are doing now,” he said.
While no confirmed reports of how many off-campus parties took place over the weekend involving WVU students, there were enough reports to sound alarms for WVU officials. In response, Farris stated on MetroNews Talkline Tuesday that several agreed upon guideline violation disciplines will be taken for those found participating in those parties or other violating behaviors. This will vary from simple fines to potential suspensions from school.
“We’re going to be calling those students in and we’ll meet appropriate conduct with them and that’s all the way up to suspension and expulsion,” he said.
According to Farris, there are several ways to report any breaking of COVID-19 guidelines by WVU students. Aside from reporting to local authorities, which is encouraged anyways since Morgantown’s 25 person or more gathering ban was out in place since July 28 there is a separate WVU tip line for those wishing to report. This tip line has been used by students to make anonymous or openly concerned phone calls about any guideline violations.
“We’ve already received reports here over the weekend of students using our LiveSafe app which is a way for our students to connect with our university police,” he said. “Or other ways where students have anonymously and non-anonymously had been reporting, I’ll say each other and trying to hold each other accountable,” he said.
As of Tuesday, over 14,000 mandatory COVID-19 tests have been taken by WVU’s students, faculty and staff, since they were allowed back on campus in early August. Out of those tests, 91 have been confirmed positive leading to a .76 percent positive test rate for anyone currently on campus. Unfortunately across the country, schools that have seen COVID-19 guidelines violations have seen fast spikes in infection numbers including at the University of North Carolina where 139 new cases lead to a complete shutdown of in-person classes. Farris, feels that those guidelines when followed played a role in the low infection numbers and if they stay followed, low test numbers will continue and the goal of finishing the school year can be achieved.
“We’re going to use all of the tools in our arsenal,” he said. “Because our goal is to get our students to November 24 which is what we’re saying is the end of the semester for in-person classes,” he said.