For most students, going back to college is something to look forward to as students can catch up with classmates they haven’t seen all summer, and prepare to focus for the year ahead. Some students returning to school though are experiencing a different kind of back to school routine: they are suffering from swine flu and are forced into quarantine away from the general student population.

Take the Turman South dormitory at Emory University in Atlanta, for example. The New York Times recently covered a story concerning this dorm of swine flu infected students, known as The Leper Colony to some. They are isolated from the rest of the student body until they can go 24 hours without getting a fever. There are 100 students in the Turman South dorm. They are not allowed to attend class, instead they are given free food and are brought Tamiflu, granola, sports drinks, soups, and thermometers by members of staff. The average stay at Turman South is between two to four days.

The American College Health Association found in a recent survey that there are now over 2,000 swine flu infected students across the nation. The areas most affected are in the southeast and northwest, with the highest number of victims in Georgia, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington. The disease is yet to claim a college life, and only three students have been hospitalized so far.

For some students, the quarantine experience is strangely enjoyable. “We get to sleep all day and don’t go to class,” said Sarah Spitz, 18, a freshman from Wellesley, Mass. “It’s kind of great,” she said.
For others though, swine flu is a frustrating annoyance. “I’m behind on school work. I haven’t done anything in three days,” said Josh Katz, 19, from Los Angeles. “I wish I was meeting new people and socializing, but I’m stuck here.”

While cooped up in doors, the students form a quarantine bond of sorts. At Emory, the students have scrawled “Swine ‘09” on the window. At Davidson College in North Carolina, a similar experience was being felt by the swine flu victims there. “Ultimately, it wasn’t completely terrible,” said Carrell Brown, 18. “You’d always rather be in your dorm room. But being in quarantine was a bond you can’t break.”