Amidst a global pandemic, colleges across America are beginning to start the fall semester. Students across the country, myself included, are returning to campus. This semester, though, will be like no other semester we've ever experienced.
To start with, it took a while for my university to decide whether to open back up for classes or not. Eventually, they decided they would, but with many COVID-19 precautions, some of which, I am seeing first hand.
To start with, my university, as well as my city, have mask mandates in affect. Personally, I rather like this mandate as well as the strict enforcement of the rule.
My university is still having on-campus classes, but they have also added a variety of blended classes as well as a lot more online classes. This is taking some getting used to since I am taking five classes but only two of them are on campus.
The university is also limiting the number of people that can be in a building at any given time.
For class buildings, they use the before mentioned changes to classes. On top of that, desks have to be spaced six feet apart, at least, and the seat you sit in on the first day becomes your assigned seat. The in-person classes also have less people than they would have normally.
For the student union and dining halls, they have removed some seating and spaced out the seating they left. There are also markers to stand on in the restaurant lines to space students six feet apart. This has been surprisingly effective as the student union almost feels empty with so little people just hanging around.
For the dorms, they have turned every room into a private room and left one dorm building empty to quarantine students in if they get sick. I think it's a bit scummy that they are still charging the private room price for rooms though, which is the normal price plus a fraction of that price. I don't have to worry about it too much though because I opted to get an apartment for myself because it was safer and cheaper.
Despite all of these safety measures, there is still an air of anxiety over campus that an outbreak will happen. It has been especially tense since the outbreaks announced at Notre Dame, UNC Chapel Hill, Iowa State University, and many more. Many of these outbreaks, though, were rooted around students who disregarded coronavirus safety on and off campus.
At this point, all of the professors I have this semester have said that we'll just have to see what happens and play it by ear. The university is doing its best to keep us safe and feel somewhat normal. This year, we'll just have to hope the university's best is enough to keep COVID-19 down here.
