College in Covid
Corona hasn’t just affected our home life but our school life.
Many college campuses look just like this one. They are very empty.
This time in our lives can feel like a crazy experience. COVID 19 is currently having a significant impact on our daily life, small businesses, restaurants, and it has affected our schools, colleges, and universities. To say the least, colleges have been severely affected by the pandemic. In what should be the best years of a college student’s life, we now have quarantines, no clubs, no parties, and no fun!
This year for many college students, life on campus looks a little different than it did in the past. Many of the colleges and universities moved to online learning. Students were notified in the middle of the summer that their school would be online until further notice.
For freshman, this was awful news. Freshman year is when you meet new people, attend social
gatherings, experience dorm life, and participate in club sports and intramurals. For seniors, juniors, and sophomores, it’s a little different, but they are coming back to campus to experience a different college life than they knew pre-COVID. Students who live off campus can continue to live off campus, but they will still have courses online.
Even though many schools opened their doors at the beginning of the fall semester, they did announce different learning and living options to students. This is a smart idea because going into the school year you have no idea if you’re going to stay or not.
As the school year has moved on, colleges and universities are having a difficult time managing the outbreak of COVID19. Students are partying and are not being safe, resulting in mass infections with the virus and the whole school being switched to online instruction. For example, this happened to JMU and many more schools such as UNC, NC State, and Notre Dame. Clearly, college students have to learn to stick together and get through this in the safest way possible.
Universities understand that many people will test positive for Corona. These Universities have a plan if someone gets it. A Virginia Tech News article said that “Currently, 41 residence hall rooms are occupied by students in isolation, or 23.8 percent of the rooms available.” https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2020/08/dashboard-announcement-aug3120.html Virginia tech and many other schools have made isolation rooms for students. These students will go take a test if the feel like they need to, and if it comes out positive the student will be sent into an isolation room or sent home. If sent to a room, they must remain alone, and food is brought to them. After being in isolation for two weeks and testing negative, the students are free to go. While not all are, most colleges are doing something this.
Although many Colleges have had to shut down, fortunately some schools have had strict rules and are still up and running. CNU, for example, has some classes in person and some online, but students are still allowed to live on campus. Some of the rules that colleges have had to enforce for safety are no parties, no one from another dorm is allowed in students’ rooms, masks are required at all times, everywhere, no sports games, and strict social distancing.
Jack Nice, a former Lafayette student and now a CNU freshman tells us “I wish we could go to class, and things could go back to normal, but I understand why these rules are in place. The rules aren’t bad once you get used to them.” Many students and Professors are very understanding of what’s going on. With these rules in place hopefully things will gradually return to normal
Sororities and Fraternities are a great social outlet but in the time of corona they can cause real problems. Sororities at many schools are doing online recruitment. Many of the recruitment rules have changed. For example, in recruitment you used to not be allowed to dm or contact people who are rushing. But now it is allowed. Many freshmen will participate in zoom calls to meet the sororities.
Some Sororities are doing the normal rushing but wearing masks and following Covid rules. The CNU frat will be sanctioned by the University if they throw a party, but some schools are not enforcing the no party rule and are letting things slide. The rules are really made to fit the school so if it’s safe to do these things then it’s okay to do them. According to a New York times article on fraternities and frats they informed us that “Fraternities and sororities have been especially challenging for universities to regulate. Though they dominate social life on many campuses, their houses are often not owned or governed by the universities, and have frequently been the site of excessive drinking, sexual assault and hazing. That same lack of oversight, some experts say, extends to controlling the virus. Even on campuses that are offering online instruction only, people are still living in some sorority and fraternity houses.”https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/18/us/coronavirus-fraternities-sororities.html the New York times said it best. Many people are not following rules and they are not really be stopped.
Many students in college are online, in hybrid classes, or face to face. The Universities have done what’s right for their college and their students’ safety and needs. Students and Professors have both given up a lot this year but luckily everyone, for the most part, is working together.
