COVID in the Dorms

An afflicted student shares his story

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Photo: Kirk Meyers / The Ebbtide

In May, a case of COVID-19 was reported in SCC’s dorm building.

Emma Dortsch, Copy Editor

COVID-19 seems to have found its way everywhere — even to SCC’s dorms.

SCC student, dorm resident and basketball player Eric Overgaard Jr. was diagnosed with the virus in early April. On May 5, Overgaard sat down for an interview with The Ebbtide to describe his experience with COVID-19 while living at the college. Here’s what he had to say.

Q: How did you find out that you had COVID-19? Does the college require that dorm residents be tested regularly?

Overgaard: No, we don’t really require any testing — I just kind of felt a little bit sick so I just went to go get a test and that’s when I found out that I was positive.

What are the COVID-19 precautions like on campus?

Right now they’re currently just wearing masks within the high-traffic areas; like in the lobby, the washer and dryer area and pretty much anywhere basically outside of your room.

Do you have to be screened for temperature at all?

For living on campus, no I haven’t been screened yet with any temperature guns or anything like that. I was able to request it when I was in isolation but other than that, no.

How long have you been living on campus?

Since September.

What made you decide to live in the dorms during the pandemic?

I do play for the basketball team here, so I just wanted to be closer to make that a little bit easier — because I was told at the beginning of the year that we were going to have a season, and so I was already here when that got cancelled so I had to stay out for the year.

So that hasn’t happened at all?

We just practice two days a week, so yeah, we’re just practicing for right now.

What was your reaction when you found out you’d contracted COVID-19?

Just a little bit more nervous about what was gonna happen with any of the side effects of it. I wasn’t really around anybody that much so I wasn’t really worried about anybody’s safety besides people that live in my dorm, so I just really just put myself in the quarantine in my room when I found out so I could make sure to not infect anybody else with it.

What steps did the college take when it was found out you’d contracted COVID-19?

When the school was notified that I tested positive, I was put into a Zoom call with a couple administrators of the school and they ran it down to me what the next steps were and basically my isolation process, as well as what the steps were going to be to help me have a smooth transition throughout the entirety of it and then what was going to happen after.

What are your thoughts on how the college handled the situation?

I thought they handled it really well — they offered all the help I could need during my isolation, during my quarantine process — I feel like I was really taken well care of and I think my roommates can say the same with helping us with anything we needed, and, you know, offering any kind of assets that would help us feel at least normal during the process, so I feel like the school handled it really well.

What’s your recovery status? How are you doing right now and what’s your situation like right now?

Right now I’m pretty much fine. I’m all good, I’m about almost three or four weeks since I’ve gotten out of isolation and now I feel pretty much basically fine, like how I felt before — so it kind of passed over, like I didn’t have any lasting symptoms or any bad symptoms that affected my health now, so I was pretty lucky in that way.

May 30: The Ebbtide has reached out to Overgaard for an update.