It’s time for a reality check and the unspoken truth. In two months our city will experience the arrival of an army of COVID-19 spreaders. Approximately 24,000 American and foreign students will invade our community. There can be zero doubt that hundreds will be infected with the virus. There can also be zero doubt that many will party, party, party with some having the attitude “the virus can’t kill me, it’s like the flu.” They will be among us. Lane County will experience a surge in COVID cases.

America was recently shocked to learn that in Alabama the “Me-Me Generation” were having COVID parties that involved paying a cover charge to attend and whoever first came down with the disease won all the money. Don’t fool yourself, this could also happen with the Me-Me’s soon to arrive here. The UO has a national reputation for being a party school filled with anti-authority and devil-be-damned students.

We cannot trust the University of Oregon to safeguard the community; it is only interested in making money by way of tuition, fees and dorm rent. How else can it afford to pay the exorbitant salaries its faculty and administrators earn? The hybrid methodologies it’s employing as a big business to keep jobs and avoid salary cuts or layoffs is really just an experiment, and if it goes awry guess who suffers? We do.

Do you honestly think that living in dorms and attending traditional classrooms won’t result in students getting infected and spreading it off-campus?

James Houston

Eugene