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USA Today
'A scary reality': Students react to colleges' reopening plans with mix of optimism, fear
Suzanne Hirt
Arriving on campus kick-starts a year of firsts for college freshmen,
and Abbey Shea was excited about all of them. Her first introduction to
new roommates who may become lifelong friends, first semester away from
home, first foray into independence.
And then her Port Orange, Florida, high school postponed its graduation
ceremony because of the coronavirus. Uncertainty set in, and Shea
braced herself for “a new normal,” she said: a college experience far
different from the social mecca she’d imagined.
“I’m trying to open myself up more,” said Shea, 18, who selected Nova
Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale as much for its diverse
student population as for academic reasons. Now, she worries
pandemic-related rules will smother her interpersonal goals. “I know
it’s not going to be the same.”
Though Nova, a private university, has yet to publish a comprehensive
outline for the fall semester, the Florida State University System’s
reopening plans, approved last week by its Board of Governors, might
give Shea a glimpse of what to expect.
With mask in hand, Abbey Shea says the reality of leaving her South
Daytona, Florida, home to head off to Nova Southeastern University in
Fort Lauderdale in the fall is not like what she'd dreamed through high
school. “I know it’s not going to be the same.”
The 12 state schools will reduce class sizes and offer fewer in-person
courses, enforce social distancing and require faculty, staff and
students to wear face masks. Campuses nationwide have announced similar
intentions, even as data indicates a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases among
people younger than 45.
Some schools will end the fall semester before Thanksgiving but forego
the customary fall break in an effort to prevent students from leaving
campus in October and returning with the virus. Some will stagger
arrival dates, delay the start of classes to September and restrict
access to residential and academic buildings.
There’s no uniform set of guidelines – health and safety measures vary
by school and state – and experts say even screening every student who
arrives on campus will not prevent rampant spread of the virus.
“The expectation would be that COVID-19 will run through campuses like
wildfire,” said Dave Blake, an associate professor at Augusta
University’s Department of Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine.
“That’s probably what’s going to happen if you don’t have really good
surveillance testing procedures in place. And I don’t see universities
setting those up in a way to do that and be effective.”
‘A scary reality’
In a June student newspaper survey of nearly 600 students at Middlebury
College in Vermont, more than half of respondents said they were “very
concerned” about how the health risk would affect their fall semester.
Even more – about 65% – expressed the same level of concern about a
lack of ability to see their friends in a social distancing or remote
situation.
A popular student bar near the University of Central Florida in Orlando
became an example of that eagerness to resume social activity – and the
health risks of doing so. The Florida Department of Business and
Professional Regulation announced last week that it had suspended the
bar’s license after 13 employees and at least 28 customers tested
positive for the coronavirus. By Friday, the state announced that bars
would no longer be permitted to serve alcohol for on-site consumption.
Schools will try to discourage such gatherings when students arrive by providing information and personal protective equipment.
For instance, all University of Florida students will receive a care
kit that includes hand sanitizer and wipes, face masks and education
material that explains the importance of being proactive to prevent
spreading the virus, according to D’Andra Mull, vice president for
student affairs.
“We try to help students understand that this is a shared responsibility,” Mull said. “We have to protect one another.”
But some are still wary of returning to campus, fearing both the risk
to their health and that their studies will suffer from reduced
interaction with peers and professors.
Alexis Morris, a third-year student majoring in marketing and
promotions at Western Michigan University, fears colleges' reopening
plans have overlooked commuting students like herself. “It’s a scary
reality. Do I really want to return to campus if we don’t have a
vaccine?”
Alexis Morris, a third-year student majoring in marketing and
promotions at Western Michigan University, has considered not enrolling
in upper-level courses required for her degree until she’s certain she
can take them in person because she found the online learning
environment to be lacking last semester.
“It just wasn’t the same,” said Morris, 20. “You couldn’t really ask questions.”
Tuition refunds? We don't owe students for switching to online instruction, University of Michigan says
Another disappointment followed when her summer internship was
canceled. And as her school considers reopening, she fears commuters
such as herself – who head home to at-risk relatives after class or,
conversely, could carry the virus from their communities to the campus
– have been overlooked while colleges craft their reopening plans.
“It’s a scary reality. Do I really want to return to campus if we don’t
have a vaccine?” Morris said. “I’ve been on campus for a 10 a.m. class,
and when it gets out there’s no way to keep people 6 feet apart.”
Eli Lyons, 19, a junior at Winthrop University in South Carolina, has
reservations about returning to campus but feels he has no choice. “I
read stories about how my generation is going into the worst job market
we’ve ever seen. I want to be in a place where I have skills and some
kind of certification that makes me marketable because otherwise I’m
just not sure where I will fit into this world once all this blows over
— if it all blows over.”
Eli Lyons, entering his third year at Winthrop University in South
Carolina, has similar reservations. He just signed a lease for an
apartment near campus with no guarantee of a refund if the school
cancels in-person classes. And as an English major who plans to add a
political science major, he feels group engagement is a part of the
learning experience that can’t be mimicked online. Yet he feels
compelled to continue his education uninterrupted.
“I read stories about how my generation is going into the worst job
market we’ve ever seen,” said Lyons, 19. “I want to be in a place where
I have skills and some kind of certification that makes me marketable
because otherwise I’m just not sure where I will fit into this world
once all this blows over — if it all blows over.”
He also worries about living close to peers who may be less diligent
about wearing masks and safe hygiene. “It feels like signing up to jump
into a mosh pit and watch each other go down one by one,” he said.
“That’s cynical, but the reality is I’m going back to school and I’m
going to see people get sick.”
The virus’ proliferation on school grounds is inevitable, according to Blake, the Augusta neuroscience professor.
To stymie the spread, schools need to test students every few days,
especially at the semester’s start, to account for false negatives and
the potential for tests being administered to an infected person before
symptoms set in. Schools that screen students just once upon their
return to campus will miss one-fifth of infections, he said.
In the absence of rigorous testing, he proposed a scenario in which 80%
of campus populations become infected – an especially dire forecast for
faculty over 50.
“If you’re a 60- or 70-year-old faculty member –and we have many of
those (at Augusta) – you’re looking at something like a 4% chance of
dying,” said Blake, 52. “It doesn’t give you that warm, fuzzy feeling
that everything’s going to be OK.”
Evolving expectations
Jonathan Swindell, CEO of HBCU Hub, an app that links Black students
with recruiters at historically Black colleges and universities, noted
that as the African American community has suffered significantly from
the coronavirus, HBCUs in particular must make student safety paramount.
Of the reopening plans released by those schools, Swindell said, “I do
believe they are sufficient – they just have to be met. HBCUs cannot
have a laissez-faire attitude about ensuring they meet these
guidelines.”
HBCU Hub’s internal research indicates a trend toward Black students
considering a gap year between high school and college as well as a
decrease in students willing to attend school out of state.
Jonathan Swindell, CEO of HBCU Hub, an app that links Black students
with recruiters at historically Black colleges and universities, said
HBCUs must make an extra effort to ensure student safety because the
Black community has been affected disproportionately by the coronavirus.
Fred Douglas, a New Jersey high school counselor for 31 years, has
noticed a similar pattern. As coronavirus cases dwindle in New Jersey,
recent high school graduates are hesitant to head to college campuses
in states that have become hot spots.
“Local community colleges in our area are anticipating late summer
surges in their enrollment,” said Douglas, the new president of the New
Jersey School Counselor Association. “Students may want to commute, go
closer to home. And if it’s going to be an online experience, they may
not want to pay out-of-state tuition rates.”
While some students have delayed decision-making for now, Shea, the
freshman at Nova Southeastern, has her preliminary plans settled. She
spends her summer days searching for a silver lining to the crisis that
has upended her college expectations.
“I felt like everything was pitted against me, even though there’s so
much going on in the world right now that I know it’s not,” Shea said.
“We’ll get through this, we’ll go to college, we’ll experience things.
It may be difficult now, but it will get better.”
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