(Cover photo source: Jamie Zhang)

For nearly two months students were restricted to their dorms, only to be let outside for Covid tests, while the burden of providing food and meeting other personal and health needs was shouldered by the university administration.

“We could tell that the administration did its best to help us survive during the lockdown,” said Mia Cai, a sophomore living in Jinqiao residence hall. “Our parents deeply trust the university and they are satisfied with what the administration has done.”

Jenny Zhang, a student Residence Assistant in the Jinqiao residence hall, appreciated that the school "provided us with three meals a day and some additional snacks, for free.”

“With a population of 25 million people but limited deliverymen and food, I heard people have to wake up as early as 5 a.m. to compete for meat and vegetables,” she said.

Celia Forster, a foreign student living in the Jinqiao residence hall, was also grateful for what the school did.

“As a foreigner, I have trouble navigating the group orders and ensuring the security of food outside the dorms. I really appreciate that the school is providing us meals with different options. They are listening to students’ requests,” Celia said.

For students such as Muslims and vegetarians whose food needs are different, the school also did its best to accommodate them.

“Vegetarian food would be delivered to their doors by ayis. Besides that, for lunch students could choose between chicken or beef, and for dinner, between chicken and pork,” said Jenny Zhang.

In addition to food, the school also responded to students’ other daily needs. Hygiene products, including shampoo and laundry detergent, were delivered to every floor in the residence hall.

Considering students were not allowed to go beyond their floor and were not able to charge laundry cards in the resource center in Tower 2 at Jinqiao, the school wiped the charges. A common-use laundry card was placed in the common area.

Jenny Zhang believes that without the help of the school, students’ levels of anxiety would have become more elevated and a huge distraction from their academic work. She believes the school did a really good job.

The administration also made big efforts to understand the students’ situations, including Chancellor Tong moving into the Jinqiao residence halls on April 14.

“I am here to better understand the feelings and needs of the students who have been quarantined in the dorm for some time and to better communicate with their parents about their situation and address their concerns,” he said when he made the move.

Students saw Chancellor Tong helping to distribute food and printing paper for them. “It is nice to see the chancellor is willing to give up where he was living and come stay with us. It shows that the school administration does care about us and makes us feel supported,” said Celia Forster.

Another student living in Jinqiao residence hall, Ziming Xu, had the same thoughts.

“This made it easier to reach out to the chancellor. I sent a message to him about the difficulties some international students were facing and he replied to me really fast. It seemed to me that he knows and understands what is going on.”

Exchange activities were also happening within the dorm community. “We called out our needs in the floor group chat, and people were very generous in lending their items,” said Celia.

Ziming Xu helped to advance the mutual support concept within the student community. He created an online Mutual Aid Form with some other students, aiming to facilitate the exchange of helpful and necessary items and information within the residence halls.

“I saw that students in the food supplies group had lots of demands that could not be fulfilled by the university, so we decided to create this sheet as a method for students to help each other, faster and more flexible than the school administration,” said Ziming.

The form lists the name of the student, location in the dorm, best contact methods, and items that could be provided/needed. Up to more than 100 items were listed and it worked effectively. Students who needed medicine in an emergency successfully received it through the help of the form.

Mia Cai also shared her experience of receiving help and necessities when she was told to move to the Pusan dorm for a one-week quarantine as a close contact of an infected case.

“I was especially moved by the sight of an empty elevator delivering my snacks and daily necessities. Students were not encouraged to take the elevator, but my friends showed their initiative, even though they could not contact me in person,” said Mia.

With all courses going to online mode and with the WiFi network being irregular, the IT department negotiated no-cost 50 GB data packages from major cell phone carriers.

The professors also adopted a more flexible course schedule to help students through this difficult period. Most professors recorded their lectures to accommodate students who needed to take PCR tests or were in a different time zone. Some professors opened more office hours and some postponed the original deadline for assignments.

It was an extremely difficult time for students working on projects related to interactive media arts that require offline work. “One course I am taking is called Moving Images, and it required lots of film shooting. Staying in the dorm would bring lots of limits to the content we could shoot,” said Jenny Zhang.

“We were also not able to get access to equipment from the school and could not use the computer lab to edit our work, and that’s a bit troublesome.”

But the professor adjusted the course requirements to overcome the prevailing limitations and postponed the film shoot projects to the end of the semester. The professor also switched most of the projects so they could be completed online.

Entertainment activities were also held in the dorms in an innovative way when students were restricted to their own floors. The Student Health and Wellness Department held a chorus on the balconies in Jinqiao on April 17. Students not living in Jinqiao could participate in the fun through Zoom.

According to Tom Li, a student in Jinqiao and also the event host, the activity aimed to help students get relaxed and release pent-up emotions.

Despite the many restrictions and inconveniences, there were longer term aspects of the lockdown. Many students claim they now have a deeper relationship with their roommates and floormates.

“In the past, I only met my roommate in the evening, and we would have very limited conversations,” said Mia Cai. “But now we spend most of our time together. The lockdown enables us to get to know each other better.”

Mia also said she had never had a conversation with her floormates before the lockdown, but got to know them through the various item exchange activities.

And while these new bonds were being built, students also developed a stronger sense of independence. “My roommate and I are learning to cook on our own and our parents are happy to see us gaining new techniques,” said Mia.