'Let me be clear': Pitt dean admonishes students for partying during pandemic

University of Pittsburgh students who party could tip the school into shutdown mode, a top official at the school warned.

Dean of Students Kenyon Bonner cautioned students that large parties carry the potential of becoming covid-19 super-spreader events and threaten the ability to continue classes on the Oakland campus. On Wednesday, Pitt administrators moved the start of in-person classes to Sept. 14, weeks later than the original start date of Aug. 24.

Officials at Pitt, who are testing students weekly, said last week’s pool of 450 student virus tests yielded two positive results.

Students who began moving into dorms at the Oakland campus last week have been violating university conduct guidelines adopted to control the pandemic, Bonner said.

“Over the past few days, I have been alerted by students, parents and community members that a large number of students are holding and attending parties without wearing face coverings and without observing physical distancing guidelines,” he wrote in an email to students. “Let me be clear: Your behavior is threatening a successful fall term for all of us.”

Pitt’s hybrid plan calls for limiting the number of students on campus and providing a combination of online and in-person instruction. It relies heavily on students to follow strict public health guidelines.

Bonner said student parties and subsequent spike in covid-19 cases apparently were a factor in the University of North Carolina’s decision on Monday toshutter its Chapel Hill campus after only one week of classes. Such conduct also played a role in Notre Dame’s decision to move to online instruction this week.

A “late night party” led the University of Connecticut to expel several student from campus housing after a dorm party, the Connecticut Post reported Wednesday.

“Students were not wearing masks, closely assembled and endangering not only their own health and wellbeing, but that of others at a time when UConn is working to protect our community and resume classes in the context of a deadly global pandemic,” university officials wrote in a letter.

During a weekly covid-19 update, Allegheny County officials further piled on local college students, pleading for them to refrain from large gatherings and to wear masks in public places – including outdoors in crowded neighborhoods like Oakland.

“You young people — we’re relying on you,” said County Executive Rich Fitzgerald. “If school is going to go back in a way in which we want it to go back, where you go into the classroom or you go into your lecture hall or you go into your labs, it can only happen if everybody is cooperating.”

Dr. Debra Bogen, the county’s health director, reflected on her own experience in recent days walking through Oakland and seeing many people on the street not wearing masks.

“We are very fortunate — the colleges in Pittsburgh, the college campuses and the students they bring here really add a level of richness to our community,” she said. “We’re happy that students are here, but we want them to be really safe.”

Bogen said health officials have reviewed universities’ reopening plans and met with leaders many times in preparation for their fall reopening. She asked students to “be a good member of our community,” encouraging them to adhere to state and local health guidance.

Pitt students found to have attended or hosted large parties could be subject to sanctions ranging from housing restrictions to suspension, Bonner said.

On Wednesday, Provost Ann E. Cudd said university officials decided that starting Sept. 14 gave students an opportunity to complete required quarantines and begin in-person classes together.

“Although I had hoped that after beginning the first week of the semester remotely we would move immediately to mostly in-person classes, we now think it prudent to extend the remote period until September 14. This adjustment to the schedule will allow for the completion of staged arrival and shelter-in-place procedures so that all students can start in-person classes at the same time. Additional information about what in-person classes will take place while Pitt is in the Elevated Risk posture will be forthcoming,”’ she wrote.