The residence hall designated by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as quarantine quarters for students who tested positive for COVID was filling up fast before the spring semester wrapped up its first week.
Matthew Gillespie found his assigned room on the eighth floor of Sandoz Hall already occupied on Friday morning, after the test the Omaha student had taken a day earlier came back positive.
"He got to the room a couple hours before I did," Gillespie, an economics and political science major with sophomore standing, said in a phone interview. "Everyone I've talked to has said they have a roommate."
Sandoz Hall, which opened as a women's dormitory more than a half century ago, was closed this year as construction on a nearby College of Engineering building got underway.
It was expected to remain offline until 2023, but over winter break, in anticipation that the need for quarantine and isolation rooms would exceed the beds available in another residence hall, UNL reopened eight floors of Sandoz to create additional capacity.
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On Monday, a total of 210 students at UNL were in quarantine in Sandoz Hall and Piper Hall, the university said.
The quarantine numbers come as a reported 2,011 students, faculty and staff -- roughly 11.4% of the 17,710 saliva samples submitted -- tested positive for COVID between Jan. 14-20, the final week of mandatory reentry testing on campus.
"It's about what we were expecting given everything we had seen about omicron," said Deb Fiddelke, UNL's chief communications officer.
The highly contagious variant has driven record numbers of cases across the United States, including in the Capital City, according to the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department, prompting the return of a citywide mask mandate earlier this month.
UNL also imposed its own mask mandate ahead of the spring semester.
This week, students who live in congregate living spaces such as residence halls or fraternity or sorority houses, will be required to test once more in an effort to detect any lingering COVID clusters on campus.
But aside from that, UNL will move ahead with the spring semester as planned, Fiddelke said, including in-person classes.
UNL Faculty Senate President Steve Kolbe said the number of students missing class due to COVID varies across campus, often correlating with students' living arrangements.
The associate professor of virtual production in the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film said he has had minimal disruptions in his classes so far, but has heard some classes have had as many as 25% of students out sick.
"Everyone kind of knows the deal," he said. "Students know the deal. We encourage them not to come to class if they don't feel well, just like I won't come to class if I don't feel well.
"We're trying to be as lenient as we can be," Kolbe added.
The spike in cases at the state's largest university campus has raised concerns among some students, however, who say it has become nearly impossible to avoid coming into contact with someone carrying the virus.
Ken Bartling, a freshmen political science major from Grand Island, said he was notified about six potential exposures since returning to Lincoln on Jan. 10, including the day after he moved back to campus.
In a letter to Chancellor Ronnie Green and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Laurie Bellows, Bartling said UNL's requirement that students submit to COVID testing by the end of the first week of the spring semester rather than before they could attend class was "inadequate and insufficient to ensure the safety of students, faculty and staff on campus."
Bartling asked UNL to consider postponing the start of in-person classes for two weeks, provide students with N95 masks, to require more frequent testing of students, or require instructors to provide virtual learning options for students leery of gathering in groups.
"I know quite a few people who have told me they feel unsafe even going to class," Bartling told the Journal Star in a phone interview.
Bellows, responding on behalf of UNL's administration, told Bartling they were "confident that the protocols we've put in place will help ensure the safety of our campus community."
UNL said it was also reluctant to return to online-only learning, which it said "resulted in higher levels of stress for most students and, for some, an increase in mental health concerns."
Bartling said he was "glad to hear (UNL is) concerned about students' mental health," but said he believed a temporary return to virtual learning would have been a better approach to start the spring semester.
"Safety and well-being should be the first priority," he said.
Fiddelke said the rapid, saliva-based testing allows UNL to notify students early whether they have COVID, and to provide them options for isolating or quarantining themselves.
Students who live on campus are given the option of moving into Sandoz Hall or Piper Hall temporarily. Under the current guidance from the Centers for Disease Control, students are asked to quarantine in the dorm for five days.
After the five days are up, students return to in-person classes and other campus buildings if they follow proper masking and social distancing rules, Fiddelke said.
Those with roommates are asked to continue sleeping in the quarantine room for an additional five nights until they are cleared to move back into their own residence hall, according to UNL's protocols.
Gillespie, who was fully vaccinated and received a booster shot on Dec. 23, said students have been moving out of Sandoz after finishing their quarantine requirements just in time for others to move in at a steady clip.
"It's not super-crazy, but it's been a pretty busy place," he said.
UNL provides box lunches and dinners for the students in the Sandoz lobby -- Gillespie said "the food situation could definitely be a lot better" -- and a store in the residence hall offers other goodies such as cereal, mac and cheese and microwaveable pizza rolls.
In between classes, or late into the night, quarantined Huskers pass the time walking around the residence hall and socializing, Gillespie said. Many, including himself, appear to be asymptomatic.
"Not too many people are super-stressed or anxious or anything," he said. "But it's quarantine, so there's not much to do."