In the text overlay on the video user @Leahckaplan wrote “when you get covid at tulane so they get you a luxury hotel suite and a prepaid visa for doordash.”
Students and faculty at Tulane University recently received a letter from the school alerting undergraduate students that they would be allowed to work remotely for the remainder of the semester due to a rise in COVID cases on campus, WDSU reported Monday.
The letter said that the positivity rate is still lower than what the school has experienced at various times over the last two years and that the cases they’re experiencing, as far as they know, are people who are either asymptomatic or experiencing mild symptoms. The letter explained that the worry comes from the timing of the surge—days away from holiday breaks—and that if it had occurred earlier this semester they would “likely not be suggesting any change in practice or policy.”
In addition to allowing students to work remotely, as of Friday, a mask mandate was introduced for indoor buildings.
TikToker @Leahckaplan showed her followers a sped-up tour of the “luxury hotel suite” that Tulane has seemingly put her up in during her quarantine period.
Commenters from other schools were quick to chime in in the comments about the difference in their quarantine experiences on their own campuses.
“PREPAID VISA BRUH WHAT ALABAMA SENT ME TO A OLD SORORITY HOUSE AND SENT ME A BAG OF LAYS AND ONE PIECE OF CHICKEN,” one commenter wrote.
Another wrote, “my school put me in an old dorm building with 2 other people in the whole building and forgot to bring me food and water for the first day.”
One commenter, who claimed to also be a student at Tulane, commented that they did not experience the same treatment after a positive test and asked the TikToker how she ended up in a hotel.
“I tested positive w a qr code so they called me but i would try to call campus health and they can get u into a hotel,” Leah explained.
Leah also explained in the comments that she receives $50 per day through the prepaid Visa card.
Michael Strecker, assistant vice president for communications at Tulane told Newsweek in an email that “students who are living on campus and test positive are housed in specially-designated isolation spaces separate from other guests at local hotels.”
He also confirmed that those students are given pre-paid cards for meals. Students who live off campus, however, isolate in their own homes.
The school is testing 2,500 randomly selected individuals daily from the Tulane community daily through December 17, according to the university’s website. A person is alerted they’ve been selected to be randomly tested by receiving a QR code.
As of December 13, the university had 174 active cases of COVID-19—168 students and six faculty members, according to Tulane’s COVID dashboard.
Newsweek reached out to Tulane University and Leah for comment.
Updated 12/15/2021, 12:50 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with a comment from Michael Strecker, assistant vice president for communications at Tulane University.