SOUTH KINGSTOWN – In an effort to curtail any possible COVID-19 outbreaks among college students as they return to the University of Rhode Island campus, South Kingstown will impose fines on students who attend off-campus parties and on those who host them.
Per an executive order to go into effect Wednesday, anyone hosting an off-campus party in town will be fined $500 and those attending such parties will be fined $250. According to a media release, the order will impose liability on landlords, tenants and parents if they have cosigned a lease.
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According to the executive order, gatherings of more than 15 people organized or attended by URI students is prohibited, while gatherings of less than 15 such people are “strongly discouraged” as the gatherings “may tend to include individuals from different households who may be infected with coronavirus and may be asymptomatic.” The order also prohibits gatherings that constitute as public nuisances – attended by five or more people, including at least two URI students, between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. where “excessive noise and unlawful conduct occurs.”
Town Manager Robert C. Zarnetske told Providence Business News Wednesday said that while off-campus parties are a reality in towns that are host communities to universities, the town of South Kingstown “can’t afford it” this year with the ongoing pandemic that closed URI’s campus to in-person learning back in March.
Zarnetske noted that other colleges have had COVID-19 outbreaks due to both on-campus and off-campus gatherings. The University of Alabama, this week, reported more than 500 COVID-19 cases, according to CNN. Both the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., and the University of North Carolina had to pivot back to all online courses for the fall semesters as the universities saw significant outbreaks.
South Kingstown is one of six Rhode Island towns in which the positive test rate for COVID-19 is 2%, according to the R.I. Department of Health’s COVID-19 data hub. While the town has had a “good track record” thus far through the pandemic, Zarnetske said URI will be welcoming back more than 14,000 undergraduate students, 1,982 graduate students and 1,339 non-degree students to campus over the next couple of weeks and the town and said the town, “cannot let up here.”
“We have to remind students that they are part of the community while they are here and we expect them to live up to the community standards,” Zarnetske said. “Wearing masks and [doing] social distancing, it’s imperative that they do it and we’re going to enforce rules to ensure that they do.”
Zarnestke said that because URI is decreasing its on-campus housing by 25% because of the pandemic and will have more students commuting to campus from other towns, it’s even more important for students to comply with the health regulations because an outbreak at URI could impact all of Rhode Island.
“It’s not just South Kingstown,” he said. “This really becomes the hub from which an infection could occur, and it could reach pretty far.”
Zarnetske said that URI also recently updated its student handbook noting that students are required to comply with state laws and executive orders related to health and safety regulations. In addition to South Kingstown Police Department enforcing the order, Zarnetske said town personnel will be designated as “COVID enforcement officials” and visit area restaurants and businesses to monitor if people are complying with health guidelines. Masks will also be distributed to individuals as well, Zarnetske said.
The order will be in effect until Sept. 29, unless either terminated prior by a subsequent order or extended, if necessary.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island Wednesday condemned the executive order, calling it an “extraordinary abuse of municipal powers” and is urging the South Kingstown Town Council to “promptly revoke this deeply troubling order.”
In a statement, RIACLU Executive Director Steven Brown said the order goes “well beyond” the executive orders put in place by the state. Brown said the order, by its own terms, bans any classes at URI or any other school in the town with more than 15 people, no matter what social distancing practices are in place, and similarly prohibits “a wide array of other activities that are allowable anywhere else in the state.”
“In addition, the Order’s singling out for special punishment of people at gatherings where such conduct as littering or unlawful parking takes place, but only when URI students are present, is grossly unfair and divests responsibility from the town’s population as a whole in seeking to contain COVID-19,” Brown said.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
This story has been updated to include comment from the ACLU of Rhode Island.
