Many column inches of newsprint have been devoted to the return-to-school plan for Freestone County’s public elementary and secondary schools but local college students have been faced with some hard decisions as well, and their experiences are looking very different across the board from those they enjoyed at the universities they left in March.
Most are returning to campuses that offer both in-person and online classes, with some having the option to distance learn for all of their classes, and others having a half-and-half menu of learning choices.
Rising Baylor University sophomore Jack Ezell characterizes his upcoming fall semester as “looking mostly like confusion, mayhem, and chaos, mostly in the form of differing schedules.”
Ezell, a political science major, was scheduled to spend the fall in Washington, D.C. at an internship, but decided to defer that experience to the spring semester, once the pandemic conditions have hopefully settled down.
While some classes at Baylor will be offered face-to-face, others will be online or a hybrid of the two, Ezell said. All students will return home at Thanksgiving and complete their finals online.
“As for me personally, I’m just going with the flow that my university gives me,” he said.
“I feel all right coming back to campus, mainly due to anticipation of the new school year and expanding my education and interests.”
All Baylor students are required to take a COVID-19 test at home and mail it in to the university the same day - Ezell did his Tuesday - and if it comes back positive, students are not allowed back on campus and their classes will be moved completely online.
The move-in procedures on and off campus differ from last year, he said.
“I will be moving into my apartment at a specific time in order to maintain social distance via the apartment complex’s rules,” he said.
Ezell says that personally, he understands that this year “may not meet my prior standards of what I understood the college experience to be.”
That being said, it’s hard to say I feel cheated. No one really knew the extent of this for a long time, and it is not my university’s fault for having to make certain decisions that may upset some people. For all of these rules, I know that they take the health and safety of their students to heart.”
He also has faith that the university has pivoted to online classes using the best research-based methods known to education.
”I believe that the education I get should be what I’m paying for, given the amount of preparation Baylor has undoubtedly given their professors over this past summer.”
2017 FHS graduate Jacob Allred, a senior at the University of Texas at Austin, is looking at a half in-person, half online schedule, with a plan to switch to all-online learning if necessary.
“If I feel like not enough is being done to make it safe for faculty and students, I will swap to full distance learning,” he said.
“I am very pessimistic about returning to campus. While I sincerely hope enough will be done to ensure safety, the thousands of students and faculty moving back and forth practically ensures an outbreak.”
In a recent New York Times article, UT-Austin showed the largest number of COVID-19 cases in the United States, a statistic due to transparent reporting rather than having the actual highest numbers.
The university plans to test all dormitory residents before the first of September, and will provide all students with coronavirus tests at no charge.
In addition, there are plans in place to proactively test 5,000 asymptomatic individuals each week in an effort to deter outbreaks.
Allred, who lives in an off-campus apartment, feels that “ any testing will be overwhelmed by a mass return to campus.”
He also believes that a full-price tuition bill is too much under the current circumstances.
“While the rapid switch to online instruction hurt educational quality last spring, I feel that this semester, being able to plan for online instruction may allow it to reach its usual standards,” he said.
“I still do not think it is worth the full cost of tuition, unless tuition cost is lowered to compensate for the loss of use of on-campus facilities.”
The senior student said he has mixed feelings about his last year of college taking place during a worldwide pandemic, but also has a sense of living through a historic time.
“On one hand, I am slightly disappointed in a wrench being thrown into my senior year, but on the other, it will be interesting to look back on trying to have a semi-normal semester in the heart of a pandemic,” he said. “Whatever happens, it will for sure be a unique year that hopefully won’t happen again!”
Texas Tech sophomore Kailyn Partain is looking at a mixed schedule this year, with half of her classes delivered online and half of a “hybrid modality,” she says.
“For the most part, my labs are in person and my lectures are online,” she said.
While she is extremely excited to return to Lubbock, she is worried about contracting the virus easily in the college setting.
“Although the university is doing everything they can, they cannot make the virus obsolete,” she said.
“I will still have to take every precaution possible to protect myself, especially in a bigger city.”
“As for my classes,” she continued, “I have never been much for online classes, but I am excited to see how it turns out in such an unprecedented time.”
Texas Tech is having free COVID-19 testing up until the day classes start on August 24, and will continue offering it throughout the semester.
Partain is living in an apartment this fall, after enjoying dorm life her freshman year. Move-in is drastically different from the on-campus beginnings last year, she notes.
“In order for the staff of the apartment complex to complete a thorough cleaning, we will not be able to move in until two days before classes start,” she says. “We also have to book the specific hour that we plan on moving in to prevent too many people being in one place at the same time.”
Though she feels like her educational experience will be sufficient, she doesn’t have the same hopes for the social aspect of her sophomore year.
“I feel like everyone is working together to make it the best and safest year possible given the circumstances,” Partain says.
“Socially, however, I do feel slightly cheated. It will be harder to meet new people. My hope is that we can all look back at this year and realize that we handled it the best way possible.”
Texas A&M University senior Kyle Kirgan returns to College Station next Monday, after a months-long absence while quarantining at home.
The university requires every major to offer 50 percent of its classes online and 50 percent in person, with some offered in a hybrid modality that allows students the flexibility to do both.
Kirgan decided to do his classes online for reasons that go beyond his concern for his own health.
“I think that most of the professors are just as worried about this upcoming semester as the rest of us are,” Kirgan said. “I have already received emails from the two professors that I have to be ‘in-person’ for and they are allowing people to take the classes online instead of showing up. Since my big sister is pregnant, I decided that it would be smarter and safer for her and my family if I go online.”
He said he is ready to return to College Station “despite all the craziness,” and wants to return to some sense of normalcy.
“A&M is trying its best to create a sense of safety whether you take online or in-person classes,” Kirgan said. “There are longer periods between classes so they can clean classrooms to the best of their ability, but I also believe that it will take just one or two people who have it before it spreads to others on campus.”
TAMU offers free COVID-19 testing through the health center on campus, and has been emailing students about what to expect and do if they feel ill or are exposed to COVID-19, he said.
“I do not think I will learn as much by taking an online class, but I also do not want to be a part of the problem if I do contract it,” Kirgan said. “I think taking the classes online will be a safe way to learn from my apartment.”
Move-in procedures for Kirgan and his four roommates at their off-campus apartment are “all kinds of crazy this year,” he said.
“We are scheduled to move in two days before class starts, since the dates for school were pushed to start earlier,” Kirgan said.
“I think that will be a problem at first because with everyone moving in, it will be chaos trying to get settled in and ready to start school within two days.”
The senior student admits to mixed feelings about his senior year, and said that while he’s happy to be heading back to College Station, he’s not as excited about his actual return to class.
“I don’t necessarily feel cheated out of an education, but I am not very excited about this semester,” he says. “I think after the first couple of weeks, we will either go back to normal or everything will be forced to close down and be online again,” he said.
“I am ready to move into the apartment and go back to some sort of sense of normalcy, but only time will tell how good or bad that new normal will be!”