Correction appended.
On Monday, March 15, Ohio University President Duane Nellis and Athens Mayor Steve Patterson released a joint letter warning students that gatherings over 10 people will be met with serious consequences.
In this letter, they reminded students that these gatherings could result in the suspension or dismissal from Ohio University and a loss of access to financial aid. In November, when we were seeing nearly 50 new COVID-19 cases every day in Athens County, these measures made complete sense. However, the pandemic in Athens is reaching new lows every day, and telling students that they will have their futures ruined for having 11 friends over instead of 10 is complete nonsense.
Keep in mind, throughout the vast majority of the pandemic, bars on Court Street have remained open with limited capacity, and students have continued to gather in crowds on Court Street. It makes little sense to set regulations on what people may or may not do inside their own homes now when COVID-19 is at its lowest while allowing businesses to be vectors for the spread of the virus at the pandemic’s worst.
Mayor Patterson had a chance to remind students to social distance when there was growing concern about Court Street crowds at a time when the pandemic was a much greater public health threat than it is now. Instead of taking that chance, he chose to say this:
“There's nothing anywhere in the city code that dictates how long a line can be anywhere as long as people aren't impeding pedestrian traffic … The social distancing issue is the governor's order to where people need to be social distanced six feet apart … but it's the responsibility of the individuals.”
It’s curious that business traffic was the responsibility of the governor and individuals according to Patterson, but what students do in the privacy of their own homes is somehow under the authority of the Athens city government and Ohio University.
Additionally, Gov. Mike DeWine is actively preparing for the end of Ohio’s COVID-19 restrictions because the end of the pandemic is within sight. In a tweet, Gov. DeWine announced when Ohio reaches 50 cases per 100,000 Ohioans for two weeks, all restrictions will be lifted. COVID-19 cases are at an all time low, and by the Athens City-County Health Department’s own predictions, cases will soon hit zero per day.
Alongside this sharp decline in new cases has been a rising number of vaccinated residents.
Mask mandates and practical measures should remain in place until we are at a point when the pandemic is truly at its end. However, overly invasive and draconian measures like expelling students for having a few friends over is an instance of the cure being worse than the virus.
Athens Police Department Chief Tom Pyle said, “We don’t want to be heavy-handed,” in regards to Athens’ mask mandates.
Pyle laid out APD’s philosophy of complaint-based enforcement. APD will not take formal action against someone not wearing a mask unless a formal complaint is filed by a community member.
Mask mandates are different from restrictions on large gatherings, but APD’s messaging is starkly different from Patterson and Nellis’s. Threatening to remove a student from a university and leave them in debt with no degree and no financial aid seems more than just heavy-handed.
Nobody should be having parties that reach the scale of fest seasons in the years before 2020, but I have faith most students are responsible enough not to do that; we are adults, after all.
As for Ohio University’s role in all of this, perhaps President Nellis should worry about his university’s imploding budget and disgruntled faculty instead of how students spend their weekends.
Noah Wright is a senior studying strategic communication at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to talk to Noah? Tweet him @NoahCampaign.
Correction appended: A previous version of this article contained the incorrect spelling of Mayor Steve Patterson’s name. The article has been updated to reflect the most accurate information.
