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Photo-Elissa Nadworny
NPR
Move In, Move Out: For In-Person College, Everything Rests On The First Few Weeks
Elissa Nadworny
August 19, 2020
The excitement in the air at the University of Georgia is palpable,
with move-in days for the fall semester finally here. There are packed
cars, overstuffed suitcases, a white shag rug, an old grey futon and a
potted succulent named Susie.
But nestled between the familiar college accessories were stark
reminders of the coronavirus pandemic: Boxes of cleaning supplies.
Masks. Hand sanitizer.
Across the country, hundreds of thousands of college students are
making their way to campus to begin the fall semester. At the
University of Georgia in Athens about 8,000 students are moving into
the dorms this week, beginning an unusual on-campus experience, with a
global pandemic as the backdrop.
The state of Georgia has one of the highest rates of coronavirus per
capita in the U.S. and unlike other colleges that have transitioned to
virtual learning, this flagship university is determined to host
students on campus and have many of its classes in person. Nationwide,
about 20% of four-year schools are offering classes either partially or
fully in person, with another 15% doing a hybrid approach, according to
data from the College Crisis Initiative. Those numbers, gathered
Wednesday, are continuing to change, as many institutions reverse
course.
"I'm just glad to be here," one UGA student said to a new friend on her way up to their dorms.
"We've been waiting all summer," said a mom holding a body pillow in the parking lot.
"It's going to be an interesting year," said another student as he passed the university's mass COVID-19 testing site.
All these interactions were a bit muffled because of the school's
mandatory mask policy: Unless you're eating or in your dorm, you must
wear one. Walking around campus, it's rare to see someone without one —
even if at times it's simply hanging from one ear or around the chin.
Off campus, late at night it's a different story: In downtown Athens,
swarms of students lingered outside bars, most not wearing masks. And
this is where the tension lies: All of the campus precautions depend on
student behavior.
A new beginning
Because of COVID-19, move-in runs a bit differently. Students had to
sign up for time slots — an attempt at social distancing — and when
they check in, they get wristbands for just two helpers to go up with
them to the dorms.
Kelsey Lawrence, an incoming freshman from Atlanta, makes her way up
the hill to Russell Hall, a mostly freshman dorm that can house about
1,000 students. She's pushing a luggage cart piled high with clothes
and shoes. "I probably won't have enough space for all of it," she
says, "but I'm going to try."
She elects to have her father and sister go inside with her, which
leaves her mother, Vanessa Lawrence, outside. Mom is feeling good about
the reopening; she packed up medicine and snacks, in case Kelsey gets
sick. Having her daughter away at college gives Vanessa comfort, she
says. Kelsey will get better access to testing and health care on
campus than back home, plus there's less risk for the rest of the
family if she decides to be social and gets exposed.
And Vanessa is pretty sure many of the college students streaming by
her aren't going to follow the social distancing rules. "Am I going to
be up all night tonight? Yeah I'm going to be honest about that," she
says. But then again, she thinks she probably won't sleep well again
until Kelsey graduates.
Down in the parking lot across from Russell, Ebony Coleman is waiting
with her extended family — grandmothers, twin brothers, parents – all
here to move Ebony's daughter Kyndal, a freshman, into her dorm.
"Everybody helped her get to this day," says Coleman.
The University of Georgia has always been Kyndal's dream since she was
little, Ebony tells us. "I'm feeling emotional," she says, "I haven't
cried yet, but I probably will."
Is Ebony afraid of moving her daughter in during a pandemic? Sure,
she's nervous. She even packed Kyndal a quarantine go-bag. "Like a
first-aid kit," with non-perishable food items like chicken broth. She
read about the idea on a mom Facebook group. But despite the fears,
today is a big moment for the family: Her baby girl is going to college.
Classes start Thursday
Across campus, associate professor Jon Swindler walks through the art
building — the hallways and rooms here would normally be bustling this
time of year, but today they're are empty. He has been prepping the
studios for the first day of in-person in-person classes on Thursday.
Faculty and staff have been working for months to come up with creative
solutions for how teaching studio art with masks and social distancing.
"We looked at a lot of different options," Swindler says, "You know, we
even were looking into the possibility of holding class in a parking
garage." They decided against that idea, but they have set up a
painting class with easels outside, near a green area behind the
building. Inside, Swindler opens a drawing studio that usually fits 18
students; today it's been set up with just six stations.
Faculty recorded demonstrations on video this summer to cut down on in-person demos when students return to campus.
Even with all this prep, Swindler is apprehensive about the fall semester: "There's just so much unknown still."
He stresses the value of learning in-person when it comes to art. "That
moment when a student thinks that they've made a mistake or they think
that something went wrong. And you're like, 'Hey, stop, let's look at
this,' " he says. Those moments are where the real learning happens —
"really important moments in the studio that make being in-person in
art school really important."
Pushback to in-person
The plan to reopen the University of Georgia and hold in-person classes
has been met with serious dissent from faculty. In early August,
students and staff held a "die-in" to protest the reopening.
A major critique has been how the university plans to use coronavirus
testing. There is currently a mass testing site on a field on campus
that anticipates running about 300 tests a day, all voluntary.
According to Dr. Shelley Nuss, who is helping to implement campus
reopening, there is a plan to make the operation more randomized to
better screen the campus for COVID-19, but that plan is still in the
works. "Both self-selected and randomly selected individuals will have
access to free testing," according to a spokesperson from the
university. "Testing will always be voluntary."
Michigan State And Notre Dame Suspend In-Person Learning Over COVID-19 Concerns
Financial pressures are also at play in the University of Georgia, where room and board bring in necessary revenue.
"If we were to move fully online, there is no question that there would
have to be layoffs," Jere Morehead, the university's president is
quoted as saying in the student paper, The Red & Black.
UGA is not the first large public university that's been down this
road. On Monday, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
reversed its plan to hold in-person classes after multiple coronavirus
clusters surfaced on campus. Students at UNC are beginning the move-out
process, just two weeks after they moved in.
And the University of Notre Dame also halted in-person classes after a
steady rise of positive cases, many linked to off-campus gatherings
where students weren't wearing masks or social distancing.
The University of Georgia hasn't released a threshold for when it would shut down and transition online.
"Of course it's been discussed," Dr. Nuss told NPR, "but it's very
complicated." Some questions that might factor into the decision: "Are
we out of our own isolation beds? How many pockets are in dorms, versus
not? There's probably 20 or 30 different things."
The wild card
All of the efforts on campus may be for naught, though, when night falls and students head off campus to party.
On Monday night at around 11 p.m., the bar strip in downtown Athens was
overflowing with students, most not wearing masks. In an effort to
control the number of people packed inside, bars were enforcing
capacity limits. That meant the lines outside were long and rowdy, with
students reuniting after months away. There were hugs and students
talking together closely, certainly not social distancing.
Ultimately, it seems the success of the college's reopening plan will
be decided on a packed sidewalk, a dark bar or an off-campus party.
Vanessa Lawrence, who dropped her daughter Kelsey off at Russell Hall,
is well aware of how things might play out. When she and her husband
left, she told her daughter to be prepared for campus to shut down.
"Don't worry," she said, "if it happens, we'll be here to pick you up."
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