No one ‘can say they’re not nervous’ as Clemson students return, COVID-19 persists

Todd Barnett feels just slightly nervous as more than 5,200 Clemson University students move into residence halls this weekend.

He’s the associate vice president and chief facilities officer, the top guy in charge of making sure residence halls and dining areas are clean, the ventilation systems work to maximum efficiency and there’s enough room for students to maintain social distancing in their classrooms.

“I don’t think anyone on campus can say they’re not nervous,” he said.

Months of planning for this weekend began almost as soon as the campus locked down in March due to the spread of the coronavirus.

Clemson delayed the start of school this fall by a month, opting to offer online classes. Officials watched and learned as other campuses such as the University of South Carolina opened and experienced spikes in positive tests.

How often should buildings be cleaned? Should wastewater be tested for early notice that people on campus have the virus in their systems? Should move-in times be staggered? The questions seemed unending.

Safety for 25,000 students — more than double the number of people who actually live in the city of Clemson — was tantamount, school officials said.

“I’m not going to say we’ve found the magic bullet, but we’ve done everything we can,” Barnett said.

Will delay be a benefit?

The month delay in reopening, Barnett said, was important to his staff because September is generally cooler than August, lessening the pull on the air conditioning systems. The systems have been adjusted to bring in more outside air, which in the sticky, hot days of August could add problems of their own.

Cleaning by custodians has been ramped up to three times a day. The university spent $650,000 on disinfectant wipes for students and faculty to help clean classrooms after each use.

Large lecture classes have been moved from classrooms to bigger spaces such as the basketball court at Fike Recreation Center and Hendrix Student Center to ensure social distancing. New furniture was bought for those spaces and audio visual equipment installed to allow for online broadcasting for students choosing remote learning.

Tara Romanella, Clemson’s strategic communication director, said 2,296 students — nearly 10% of the student body — opted for remote learning.

In all, the cost to configure the spaces was about $700,000, Barnett said.

The school bought 70,000 cloth face masks, enough for two apiece for students, staff and faculty. Masks are required inside and anywhere that social distancing can’t be maintained. Staff who refuse to wear masks would be subject to discipline..

Each student must arrive on campus with negative COVID-19 tests results. If they don’t, they will be tested and cannot move in until the result is available, usually within 48 hours, and negative. All faculty and staff have been tested.

Barnett said he is concerned that his staff of custodians — about 190 people — could be decimated by an outbreak and a large number of quarantined students.

One of the changes made as a result of watching other schools open earlier was to increase the space available for as many as 650 students to be quarantined.

Detecting early warning signs

Meanwhile, in the College of Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences, professor and department chair David Freedman has been readying the school’s wastewater treatment program. Over the summer, staff from the facilities department have been taking samples from area treatment plants to be sent to a lab for analysis to detect whether the coronavirus is present in wastewater coming from campus and surrounding communities.

What they’ve found so far is low levels of coronavirus detected on campus, where employees and some students have been working through the summer, but high levels in the adjacent community.

“This tells me there are a lot of asymptomatic carriers that are infectious and they don’t know,” Freedman said. “It is disturbing.”

He said the virus is found early — he called it the canary in the coal mine — as a body expels it. Sickness could occur a week or so later.

This will give the university warning that a particular residence hall or other area could have an outbreak.

“Wastewater doesn’t lie,” he said.

The wildcard

But for all the planning, the wildcard is student behavior.

“It takes responsibility,” Barnett said.

Already, without the influx of new students, downtown bars are seeing crowds of people shunning the mask ordinance, which passed Clemson City Council in June.

Clemson police have issued dozens of citations. The fine is $25, and business owners could be fined $100 if employees are seen without masks.

“It’s unfortunate wearing masks is not practiced by community members,” Freedman said. “With a much higher buy-in, we could beat this. Otherwise we limp along.”

Freedman said he expects new cases to show up within two to three weeks of students returning. Classes begin Sept. 19.

This story was originally published September 11, 2020 at 11:30 AM.