BOULDER, Colo. (KDVR) – A University of Colorado Boulder freshman says the punishment was too harsh after he was suspended last month for mingling with a sick student in the COVID-19 isolation dorms, while he also had the coronavirus.
“I personally think they’re trying to make an example out of the wrong kids,” Luke Seifert said.
Seifert will miss out on the rest of his academic semester as a biomedical engineering student because of his suspension.
In September, Seifert had been isolating at the dorm designated for students with COVID-19, Darley North Hall.
A fellow student, also diagnosed with COVID-19, who lived in a separate room on a different floor, asked Seifert if he could study in Seifert’s first-floor room due to a noisy party on his floor.
“You could hear the party on the 15th floor from the ground on the first floor, outside,” Seifert said.
“My friend was living on the 15th floor… he texted me on Snapchat and was like, ‘Hey, I have a test tomorrow in psychology. I can’t focus in my own room because my floor is getting literally destroyed,’” Seifert said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, of course. You can come to my room and study.’ He came to my room.”
Seifert said the other student joined him and his roommate in the room, even though school isolation orders specifically instructed students not to allow other students into their isolation space.
Seifert said a campus police officer looking through his first-floor window noticed the three had alcohol in the room as well.
“(The other student) had been in my room for about 45 minutes, studying, and then we had just finished…and we were socializing, and there was a drink on the table. But we were not actively drinking. We all hadn’t drank yet,” Seifert said.
According to a disciplinary notice the school sent to Seifert, “hosting students in your isolation space is a violation of your isolation order.”
“You and the other two students admitted to consuming alcohol that evening. A full bottle of Fireball and nearly full bottle of Svedka was emptied and disposed of in the recycling. The Residential Service Officer let you all go and put your Minor in Possession citation in the vestibule for you to retrieve,” the notice also said.
Seifert said he later received a notice that he would be suspended from his academic classes through Dec. 1 and that he would lose the housing and dining services he had been using on campus.
“This is a serious illness, and it should be dealt with as so,” Seifert said, “but in our specific situation, we put each other and no one else in harm’s way. We all were in the room because we tested positive already, and we respected those rules. We didn’t want to go outside. We put no one else in danger.”
Seifert said he loves school and had recently achieved a 100% on his physics exam.
“I’m a very hardworking student. I haven’t gotten a ‘B’ since sixth grade…School is a huge part of my life,” he said.
Seifert said he tried to appeal the suspension and even hired an education attorney, Igor Raykin, to help him.
“I just think that the reaction by CU was an overreaction. They punished these students pretty harshly, depriving them of an education,” Raykin said.
“I understand that in an age of COVID that a university does have to take some steps in order to keep everyone safe. That’s perfectly fair and makes a hell of a lot of sense. But you can go overboard too. It’s not like they were having some kind of a reckless COVID party.”
The university denied Seifert’s appeal saying, “the appeal board believes your multiple infractions, when compounded warrant the initial sanction decision. Additionally, this behavior could have put a variety of community members at risk, including the officer who contacted you.”
According to Melanie Parra, a spokesperson for the university, the school chancellor, Philp DiStefano, had also warned students about the seriousness of the COVID protocols in an electronic communication earlier in the month.
“Because of the serious public health risks involved, students found in violation of COVID-19 protocols that endanger our community will face strict enforcement of the student code of conduct and the campus health and safety policy, which may include exclusion from campus, probation—which can impact future study abroad or attending graduate school—and suspension from the university pending adjudication,” the message said.
The university’s COVID-19 dashboard shows 15 students have been totally suspended for public health order violations and 90 students have received probation since Aug. 27.
“As a freshman in college, during a national pandemic, we already had the entire experience wiped away. Almost all social life is non-existent. At least let me finish my classes, which are already just YouTube videos and online worksheets” Seifert said.