https://www.bloombergquint.com/gadfly/yale-princeton-covid-policies-are-hard-to-take-seriously
For anyone who believes that America’s elite institutions of higher learning are taken far too seriously — and I count myself among the believers — the last two years have been bracing. Of course I am referring to Covid policy, in particular the current efforts of Princeton and Yale to restrict the off-campus movements of their students in fairly radical ways.
This week Yale sent out an email laying out requirements for returning students. According to the Yale Daily News, there will be a campus-wide quarantine until Feb. 7, which may be extended. Furthermore, students “may not visit New Haven businesses or eat at local restaurants (even outdoors) except for curbside pickup.”
Meanwhile, in Princeton, the university issued this announcement on Dec. 27: “Beginning January 8 through mid-February, all undergraduate students who have returned to campus will not be permitted to travel outside of Mercer County or Plainsboro Township for personal reasons, except in extraordinary circumstances. … We’ll revisit and, if possible, revise this travel restriction by February 15.”
My first reaction, as someone who teaches at George Mason University in northern Virginia, is to be amazed that the life of the Yale campus and the life of New Haven can be so readily separated. If Yale truly has evolved to be a separate enclave, then that is a sign of trouble, pandemic or not.
My school is so integrated with the local community — including a large number of commuting students — that such a regulation would be unthinkable. Princeton at least is recognizing that the university and the town are pretty much inseparable.
My second reaction is that these two elite American institutions have lost their moorings. Can you imagine your school telling you not to leave the county? (Though Princeton sports teams are somehow exempted.)