After the announcement that Umass Amherst plans on having students return to campus in the fall, the Amherst town council voted 10-0 to have the school reconsider their plans. The plan requires students returning from Covid hotspots to quarantine for two weeks. There are other precautions in place, but councilors are not happy.
“We want them to provide the same kind of health protections and support to the students who live off campus as to the students who live on campus,” Town Manager Paul Bockelman told the council. “I think it’s a false division they are making, and I don’t think it’s a good one.”
Local businesses are cautiously optimistic that customers on the way. Normally 30,000 people descend on the area and this year that has some residents worried.