Pennsylvania college president apologizes for attending game during campus lockdown

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Parents and students are outraged after a Pennsylvania college president was caught breaking coronavirus rules, according to a report.

Allegheny College President Hilary Link posted a picture of herself on Instagram at an off-campus soccer game Saturday, while on-campus students were locked in a school-mandated COVID-19 quarantine.

The college's campus-wide quarantine was lifted at 9 a.m. Tuesday, after tests showed that just 0.1 percent of the student population is positive for coronavirus.

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Link later apologized.

"Posting the picture without the whole context was not my best choice," she said Tuesday.

"I was watching my 14-year-old son in his first-ever varsity soccer game for the Meadville High School in a stadium very, very physically distanced from every other person except my husband -- wearing masks," Link said. "Everybody was wearing masks. Outdoors. Absolutely following guidelines that we set out for our facility and staff who do not live on campus."

Last week, Link and the school’s health agency had sent an email demanding that students not leave campus.

Allegheny College President Hilary Link was caught at  a soccer game Saturday afternoon; the social media post had the caption "presidenthlink Representing the (Gators) even while supporting the Bulldogs!" (Allegheny College)

“This means students may not leave campus for any reason -- including, for example, trips to area businesses, jobs or any other off-campus locations.”

"There is simply no room for non-compliance, and our response throughout the semester has been and will continue to be quick and firm, with no room for leniency." the email said. "We urge families to remind your students to comply; if not, they risk jeopardizing the on-campus experience for every single Allegheny student and our faculty and staff."

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Parents and students complained about Link’s apparent lack of leadership.

Kimberly Cahill, parent of an Allegheny student, said Link was ridiculous.

"The issue is going to a game is not essential, yet my young adult student is not allowed off campus for any reason," Cahill said in an email. "Not for groceries, not for allergy medicine, not for toilet paper."

"Who is to say her being out and about won’t bring the virus back to campus?" Cahill wrote.

One unidentified Allegheny student said the rules for students aren’t the same for faculty and administration.

"How did she think the students would react to this?" the student said of Link's post. "After we are told not to go to the grocery store for essentials, she is openly displaying her leisure activity. Then she will come back to campus where we have been stuck. She acted disrespectfully to the students that need to go off campus for one reason or another."