UConn students evicted from dorms for holding pandemic party as schools grapple with COVID-19 crisis

SectionsTVFeaturedMore from NBC Follow NBC News Several UConn students were looking for new digs Wednesday after the dangers of reopening universities during a pandemic were laid bare in a video which showed undergrads living it up at a packed dorm room party where almost nobody was wearing a mask and there was zero social distancing.While the worst offenders were slapped with eviction notices, University of Connecticut officials gave no sign that they intend to follow the lead of other universities like Notre Dame and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill that canceled in-class instruction and sent students home for the semester after coronavirus outbreaks on their campuses.“These actions do not represent or speak for the 5,000 residents currently composing our residential community,” UConn Dean of Students Eleanor Daugherty and Residential Life Director Pamela Schipani said of the video in a letter to students late Tuesday. Two other students who live off-campus had also tested positive.“There will undoubtedly be more positive cases as more test results are returning in the coming days, and we will address each the same way as we work to protect the health of individual students and our community,” Daugherty said in a statement.Public health experts like Dr. Howard Koh, a Harvard professor who served as Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under President Barack Obama, said it shouldn't surprise anyone that America's universities are struggling right now."At every step of the pandemic, society has underestimated the tenacity of the virus and overestimated our ability to contain it," Koh said in an email to NBC News.