Campus Alert Archive
UW-Madison

Ninety Minutes Notice: UW-Madison Locks Down Sellery and Witte Halls as 1 in 5 Residents Test Positive

WIcovid 19advisorymedium confidence
Confirmed Threat

On the evening of September 9, 2020, UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank ordered a 14-day quarantine of Sellery and Witte residence halls -- giving the 2,500 residents approximately 90 minutes to two hours notice before the 10:00 PM CDT lockdown began. The same email announced that all undergraduate, graduate, and professional school in-person instruction across the entire flagship campus would shift to remote for two weeks. By the time the quarantine began, cumulative infections in the two halls had reached approximately 1 in 5 residents.

Alerts
3
Response
min
Killed
—
Injured
—
Institution
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Public R1 · WI
~47,000 studentsRave Mobile SafetyWiscAlerts
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

3 messages in sequence · 1 verified verbatim

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTEmail
Verified verbatimUW-Madison News publication of Chancellor Rebecca Blank's September 9, 2020 campus message (verbatim excerpt)1291 chars
All in-person undergraduate, graduate and professional school group instruction will be paused from Sept. 10 – 25. These classes will be cancelled Thursday, Sept. 10 – Saturday, Sept. 12 and will resume remotely beginning Monday, Sept. 14 for at least two weeks. Clinical training will be permitted to continue. Classes and sections that are currently being offered remotely will continue as scheduled. Our contact tracing has not revealed any evidence of transmission from in-person instruction; however, this decision comes out of an abundance of caution for our students and employees. The Office of the Provost will provide assistance, if needed, to faculty and instructional staff making this quick transition to remote learning. Given the high number of positive test results in Sellery and Witte Residence Halls, we have directed all residents in these buildings to quarantine in place for the next two weeks effective at 10 p.m. this evening. All residents of these halls who have not already been tested this week will be required to test on Thursday and Friday. University Health Services (UHS) will conduct these tests on-site. Students are NOT being asked to move out of the residence halls or leave town. We have significant additional quarantine space available if necessary.
The official campus message bundled the residence-hall quarantine with a campuswide pause of in-person instruction, making the targeted dorm lockdown part of a larger operational reset rather than a standalone Housing order
The message used a narrow carveout -- students were 'NOT being asked to move out' -- rather than a hard stay-put command, reflecting UW-Madison's effort to avoid exporting infections to families and home communities while preserving legal flexibility
The 10 p.m. effective time created an unusually compressed implementation window; student-media accounts document residents rushing for food and supplies before the quarantine began
Unlike later BadgerSAFE/WiscAlert messages in this packet, this alert survives in a primary-source university publication, allowing the operational language to be upgraded from reconstructed to confirmed verbatim
FOLLOW-UPEmail+4d
Approximate reconstructionBadger Herald reporting on University Housing policy change282 chars
Quarantined residents in Sellery and Witte will now be charged for meals delivered to your residence hall, consistent with normal meal plan operations. We understand this transition may cause concern. Financial hardship requests can be submitted through the Dean of Students Office.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Five days into the quarantine, University Housing began charging students for meals previously delivered free -- a controversial decision widely covered by student media
The reversal highlighted the financial dimension of pandemic quarantines and inequities for low-income students
Triggered a student government resolution demanding meal fee refunds for the quarantine period
ALL CLEAREmail+13d
Approximate reconstructionUW University Housing official announcement305 chars
The 14-day quarantine of Sellery and Witte residence halls is lifted effective 8:00 a.m. today. Residents may resume normal movement consistent with current campus health protocols. In-person instruction across UW-Madison will resume Monday, September 28. Continue to mask, distance, and test as required.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Quarantine lifted exactly 14 days after it began -- the maximum CDC-recommended quarantine duration at the time
By this point intensive testing had identified and isolated the majority of cases; positivity rates had fallen below 5 percent in the two halls
In-person instruction across UW-Madison resumed September 28, completing a two-week pause
Context

Background

On September 9, 2020, with cumulative infections in Sellery and Witte residence halls approaching 1 in 5 residents, UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank ordered a mandatory 14-day quarantine effective at 10:00 PM CDT that same evening. Students received approximately 90 minutes of notice before the lockdown began, triggering a rush to nearby grocery stores and crowded dorm hallways -- the opposite of the public health goal. The same official campus message shifted all UW-Madison undergraduate, graduate, and professional in-person instruction to remote for two weeks. Five days later, University Housing began charging quarantined students for meals delivered to their halls -- a controversial policy that triggered a student government resolution demanding refunds. The quarantine was lifted on September 23 at 8:00 AM CDT. A later CDC study found no evidence the outbreak had spread substantially into the Madison community.
Analysis

Key Findings

Approximately 90 minutes of notice between the email and the start of the 10 PM lockdown -- one of the shortest quarantine warnings issued by a major US university during the pandemic
Cumulative infections had reached roughly 1 in 5 residents in Sellery and Witte before the quarantine was ordered
Containment was credited by the CDC with preventing spread into the Madison community -- the only major Wisconsin university outbreak that did not spill into surrounding neighborhoods
The mid-quarantine decision to charge for delivered meals became a national symbol of pandemic-era inequity in residential housing
Outcome
Residents were confined to their rooms for 14 days with meal delivery to dorm hallways. The quarantine was lifted on September 23, 2020 at 8:00 AM CDT after intensive testing showed positivity rates had fallen. A subsequent [CDC study](https://www.wisconsin.edu/all-in-wisconsin/story/no-evidence-of-covid-19-spread-to-local-community-after-uw-madison-residence-hall-outbreak/) found that the outbreak did not spread substantially into the Madison community, attributed in part to the rapid containment. Roughly 2,000 of 2,500 quarantined students remained on campus rather than going home, in compliance with the chancellor's directive.
Provenance

Sources

  1. Official
    University shifts to two weeks of remote instruction, quarantines two residence halls -- UW-Madison News
    news.wisc.edu
  2. Official
    Sellery and Witte Quarantine Lifted -- UW University Housing
    housing.wisc.edu
  3. Student Paper
    All classes switch to virtual for two weeks, UW quarantines Sellery, Witte -- Badger Herald
    badgerherald.com
  4. Student Paper
    'Shocked' Sellery freshmen, Witte house fellow react to emergency quarantine -- Badger Herald
    badgerherald.com
  5. Official
    No evidence of COVID-19 spread to local community after UW-Madison residence hall outbreak
    wisconsin.edu
  6. Source
    Geospatial analysis of a COVID-19 outbreak at UW-Madison -- PMC
    pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Tags
covid-19uw-madisonsellerywitteresidence-hallquarantineoutbreakremote-learningpandemicfall-2020
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion