After a federal oversight committee launched an investigation, the University of Maryland put an end to what some lawmakers and health scholars contended was a stringent and outdated COVID quarantine policy.<\/p>\n
The university originally mandated that students who contract the coronavirus leave campus immediately and isolate either at an off-campus hotel or by going home, both seemingly at the students\u2019 own expense.<\/p>\n
Under the recently revised policy, students who test positive for COVID are allowed to quarantine in their dorms.<\/p>\n
The university\u2019s original quarantine directive had come under the scrutiny of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic<\/a>, a Congressional oversight committee created by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi.<\/p>\n A letter<\/a> dated Oct. 13 and signed by the committee\u2019s Chairman Brad Wenstrup and all majority members informed university President Darryll Pines that the committee was opening an investigation into his university\u2019s directive.<\/p>\n The letter cited research showing the damaging effects of pandemic-era closure and quarantine policies on the academic performance, mental health, and future income of students, especially those from low-income regions.<\/p>\n Harvard Professor Thomas Kane has described these policies as \u201cthe longest-lasting and most inequitable legacy of the pandemic,\u201d the letter noted.<\/p>\n The committee accused UMD of \u201creinstituting the same negative policies it implemented during the beginning of the pandemic at the expense of its students.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the questions that the letter demanded the university answer was how it spent the $115 million it had received from the federal government as part of pandemic relief.<\/p>\n The College Fix<\/em> reached out to four professors at the university regarding its quarantine policy, but has not yet received a comment.<\/p>\n In an update<\/a> last week, Chairman Wenstrup said the university had decided to jettison its directive, which he described as \u201ccounterproductive\u201d and \u201cunscientific.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThankfully the University, within days of receiving the Select Subcommittee\u2019s letter, changed its quarantine policy to follow science, data, and common sense,\u201d Wenstrup noted.<\/p>\n The College Fix<\/em> also contacted UMD\u2019s public relations team, who provided a link to the university\u2019s Health Center website<\/a> showing the revised quarantine policy and said they would get in touch should the university choose to make another revision.<\/p>\n