Kean University students dorm amid COVID-19 pandemic

By Emily Robles | Published by October 8, 2020

Resident Assistant Shaikira Jackson usually hosts pizza parties and trivia nights for students to come together in the dorms, but this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, she finds herself making her programs on zoom instead.

This fall semester, COVID-19 has made universities across the country unable to have a normal school year, and Kean is no exception. Schools are forced to host online classes and limit the number of students who can be on the campus at the same time. Kean University has decided to open its dorms for students, but it will not be the same as the years prior. New rules and regulations have been placed in order to ensure a safe environment. One of these new rules is that only two students will be allowed to live in a suite.

Instead of four students in a two-bedroom suite with two students in each bedroom, suites will now house one student per bedroom, two students per suite, according to Residential Student Services in an email sent to all students.

With this new rule in place, this means housing has been cut by 50% at Kean University. Along with the limited number of students living on campus, guests are no longer allowed at the residence halls. Community spaces like lounges, kitchens and computer labs are not open for use as well.

Jackson, a senior at Kean University, decided to come back this semester and reclaim her Resident Assistant position. Jackson is an RA for the Upper and Bartlett Residence Halls this semester.

“I decided to continue as a Resident Assistant and live on campus because I wanted to continue working with and helping people,” said Jackson. “But also because I was happy to see Kean doing what it takes to keep residents safe and still be able to provide the opportunity for students to enjoy ResLife. Also, because I wanted to get out of my boring quarantine routine!”

One of Jackson’s major concerns with coming back to campus was the possibility of returning home shortly after getting to campus.

“RSS faculty and staff worked hard to make sure this semester goes smoothly and I was afraid that hard work would go to waste,” said Jackson. “However, I made sure that I did my part to make sure I kept myself and others around me safe to prevent that from happening.”

One of the duties of being an RA at Kean University is creating programs for students to attend to in the dorms. The programs could be game nights, cooking nights, movie nights and more for students to interact with each other, but because of COVID these programs have changed as well.

“Programs are still happening. This semester however, most programs are virtual and any Kean student can participate by joining a google meet or zoom link,” said Jackson. “Having virtual programs is fun because now students don’t have to worry about getting out of bed to participate. You can still find all RSS programs on cougar link.”

Some RSS programs that are happening soon are trivia nights, organizing your schedule with your RA’s and coloring for a cause.

Even though Jackson is living on campus, all her classes are virtual and will not be meeting after the first two weeks of the semester. Jackson stated that she hopes face to face classes can resume soon because that is how she learns and works the best.

Even though COVID-19 is still a major concern, new incoming freshmen still made the decision to live on campus this semester.

“I needed a new environment to help me focus on my studies,” said freshman Kristine Bragg, who is a Mathematical Stem and Education major. “I live an hour and a half away and I have some classes in person so I was not going to make that commute everyday.”

The main reason Bragg wanted to dorm this semester is because she wanted to finally get out of her house and also because a majority of her classes are face to face/hybrid. Bragg lives in the Cougar Hall dorm and has said that living on campus has been great so far and that Kean is doing everything they can to keep the students safe. Bragg said that in her dorm they even installed a mask detector.

“It looks like a little tablet on the wall and it has a camera,” said Bragg. “So when you scan your ID the camera on the tablet can see if you have your mask on. It can check your temperature too.”

With COVID-19 still a major concern, Bragg said she wasn’t really nervous about living on campus this semester. She has said that she trusts the university and sees that Kean is taking the right precautions to keep everybody safe.

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