The local Department of Public of Health issued a reccomendation to suspend Commons’s self-serve food services for 48 hours this Tuesday after hearing reports of a gastroenteritis virus spreading throughout campus and the surrounding areas. Self-serve dining reopened for Wednesday evening with the approval of the Department. According to Dr. Richard Keller, School Physician, 42 students have contracted the virus between the first outbreak on Saturday night and this past Wednesday afternoon. On Saturday, 12 students came to Isham Health Center with symptoms. By Monday, 17 more students were reported to have symptoms of the virus. Isham had to send many back to their dorms because the facilities cannot sustain such a large number of students. By Wednesday afternoon, only five new students had contracted the virus. Dr. Keller said, “The decision [to close Commons] was made not because anyone was concerned that Commons [caused the virus], but [because] the self-serve areas were a possible way to pass on the virus.” The local Department of Public Health inspected Commons as a precaution to see if it was the source of the virus or responsible for its spread during the first 48 hours. Their inspection cleared Commons’ food service and operations, as well as all of the Commons workers. The lack of self-serve food at Commons led many students to order dinner and even lunch. According to Henry Frankievich ’07, Creator and Manager of AndoverTakeout.com, the site had its second busiest night last Tuesday with 213 students loading 728 pages. The past three Tuesday nights had a number of pageloads/visitors of 242/84, 168/65, and 429/131. Frankievich thought this jump in visits illustrated students’ strong reaction to the decision to close the self-serve food in Commons. “A lot of people were complaining [about the lack of self-serve food], but I think they would have accepted it as a legitmate exercise if Isham provided more information on how serious the situation was,” said Simone Henry ’08.
