Campbell students to get private rooms to limit spread of coronavirus

Campbell University officials said Tuesday that the school will provide all students with private rooms on campus this fall to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

Posted 10:28 p.m. May 12, 2020 — Updated 10:28 p.m. May 12, 2020

Leslie Moreno

, WRAL reporter

BUIES CREEK, N.C. — Campbell University officials said Tuesday that the school will provide all students with private rooms on campus this fall to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

"We made the decision to offer private rooms to all the incoming class and the returning students who want to stay on campus,” said Dennis Bazemore, vice president for student life.

For students like sophomore Liza Mcintyre, who lives on campus, the change has both positive and negative aspects.

"It’s more comfortable, but part of the freshman experience is getting to live with someone on campus, and I think it might be a disadvantage to freshman coming in,” Mcintyre said.

Bazemore said Campbell wanted to make sure students had a sense of security about their own space.

“They’re not sharing a bedroom with another student and the belongings of another student being there and the coming of going of the other student," he said. "We’re trying to do what we can to control our environment within our own school."

Students also will get their own bathrooms. Previously, two to four students shared bathrooms in Campbell dormitories.

Even with the changes, Campbell won't charge students extra for the private accommodations.

"We felt that would help families in the midst of all this going on with the coronavirus, and this could be a little bit of help for them," Bazemore said.

All residence halls will be disinfected before students move in, and public spaces and bathrooms will be routinely cleaned and disinfected during the school year.

"[We're] not sure what it will be like the next academic year, but these are the kind of plans we’re making right now," Bazemore said, adding that plans could change.

"[It] just depends on where this virus goes," he said.

Officials at North Carolina State University and at Duke University said they are still discussing how to house students when classes resume in the fall.

Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill expects to announce its plans by the end of May.

"My leadership team and many others from nearly every area of campus operations have spent the past weeks carefully and methodically contemplating various scenarios to create a comprehensive road map for the fall term," Guskiewicz said in a statement. "We are still watching the COVID-19 trends in our state and want to carefully consider those before we make our final decision for the fall."

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