One thing that Dr. Anarumo could do from his dormitory was to listen to them: Complaints about residential life, about food and the garbage not collected, were already boiling on social networks. “The pot was boiling,” recalls Williams. “People were angry, very angry on campus, very angry.”
Mr. Williams had these thoughts in mind when he called Dr. Anarumo’s number, and they talked for half an hour about campus life. Knowing he was in a dorm, it was harder to be angry, said his friend Jamaal M. Shaw, another sophomore, who was also on the call.
“We saw how he was living and also that he wanted to see what it was like to be a cadet,” said Shaw. “This is something. Even though it is very small, it is something that he took that extra step to see if morale was high.”
Dr. Anarumo, father of four, warned students not to break the quarantine rules by visiting him in person. But every now and then, he found a student waiting in a common space, longing for face-to-face contact.
“They would be waiting for me on the stairs, all quiet,” he said. “I said, ‘Hey, can I help you? Are you okay? Do you need to talk? ‘ And they said, ‘Yes’. And then I would see the tears. “At times like this, he said, “they needed to see me in person. “
In mid-February, when quarantine in the classrooms was lifted, the number of students on campus dropped to about 1,100. Many of those who remained have found strategies to deal with isolation.