- Corona , Student
- 17/08/2020
Fourteen days of compulsory lock up in The Student Hotel Eindhoven
If you come (back) from an orange or red country (appointed by the Dutch government), you are strongly advised to go into quarantine for fourteen days. However this is still not an obligation in the Netherlands, but it was at The Student Hotel (TSH) in Eindhoven. And to make sure you actually stayed in your room, you got a 'one shot key' that made sure you could only enter your room once. We spoke with a TU/e student who was quarantined with such a key.
Because of her longer stay in TSH, the master's student wants to remain anonymous. From Turkey (an 'orange country') she arrived in the Netherlands on Tuesday, August 11. “I went straight to the hotel and was asked if I was aware that I had to isolate myself. I said ‘yes’, but I was not aware that this was going to happen with a one shot key card. They told me only at the check-in.”
She was only allowed to stay in her room and nothing else. “In the beginning I thought it would be okay if I could order my groceries online. But it turned out that I could not pay online, not at Jumbo and not at Albert Heijn, that had to be done at the door. I also called the latter supermarket and it turned out that the delivery staff was not allowed to come into contact with people in quarantine, so someone else had to pay. And that was not possible in my case. ” She shared her story on Facebook, where she received a lot of surprised reactions about this policy.
Discord channel for extra help
Cosmos, the student association for internationals, tries to help out by setting up a Discord channel called #quarantine-help. They shared a message about this on Facebook. The channel offers help to all internationals who are in a forced quarantine, not just to those stuck in TSH, where they cannot get groceries or other things themselves. Cosmos tries to arrange for volunteers to help with this.
In the meantime, the master's student also found people who were willing to get her groceries and leave them at her door or at the reception, for example. This was also not possible according to TSH: there was not enough capacity for that. She had to order from the hotel menu. "That is the only option, so I do that now. There is also no compensation for the situation from The Student Hotel. I hope that the university may still be able to do something ..."
New academic year just around the corner
“There are several people here in a similar situation. Most of them are very compliant, serving their time: so far I think I am the only one who decided to express my opinion and ask for help in this way”, the TU/e student says. “I think this will become a bigger problem though, as the new academic year is just around the corner and many students are now arriving. Many will be in a similar position.”
In the meantime, The Student Hotel has sent the students an email (in possession of the Cursor editors) with adapted measures to alleviate the situation. Quarantined students are now allowed to have groceries delivered to the hotel once a week. One shot keys are also no longer handed out, but students are urged to use their common sense. The Student Hotel has been asked for a response and has acknowledged by email that these new rules are correct. In addition, the management indicates that it is open to feedback from students. If you want to share your thoughts, you can reach them at eindhoven@thestudenthotel.com.
Are you in quarantine and could you use the help of Cosmos? Then sign up with Discord and follow the channel.
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