Amidst pandemic uncertainty, students prepare return to college campuses
By Arushi Srivastava, Saida Morales, Devyn Ivers
With the fall semester coming up, students prepare to return to the classroom, schools across the country adapt their policies to vaccination status, mask mandates and the Delta variant.
In the past year, COVID-19 shut down everyday life. But as vaccine availability grew, businesses and schools opened their doors again and people began to enjoy social interaction outside unmasked. The new Delta variant increasingly pushed people back to covering their faces.
“There are things that are individual responsibilities that one has, and there are things that have to do with you individually which also impact others, and the spread of infection that we’re seeing now […] is impacting everyone in the country,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, medical adviser to the U.S. president, said in response to people choosing not to wear masks.
As COVID-19 variants threaten the little normalcy vaccines brought back, college students fully returning to campuses face the impacts of new mask mandates put in place by universities to maintain in-person classes. Students from four universities across the country spoke about returning to college in person and voiced concerns spanning from socializing after a year of isolation to impacts on networking and professional prospects after college.
For some students, the pandemic led to the loss of the typical career experience they expected. Rising American University senior Sophie Frantz is in a 5-year program with the university, her last year being graduate school. Frantz said that at times masks can act as a challenge to human connection, which caused her some worry about the future.
“I am definitely a little nervous about grad school, at least, because connecting and meeting people in your classes and your professors is such an important aspect of networking,” Frantz said. “I’m nervous about having a lot of that taken away.”
According to the Purdue Pledge, Purdue University students will be required to wear a mask inside regardless of vaccination status. Graduating Purdue University senior Cody Zrelak described his adaptation to this new reality.
“For me, wearing a mask is almost like carrying car keys. It became a thing I just walked out the door with,” Zrelak said.
Boston University has required masks to be worn in common and town-mandated areas too. But these regulations are optional in private spaces, outdoors, and when eating according to the university’s policy website.
Some students voiced difficulty making connections in individual activities due to mask-wearing. Boston University sophomore Hannah Grossman discussed how different her freshman year was from typical experiences with most classes not being in person.
“[During the school year] it was much harder to connect with others because we couldn’t see their faces and often did not even recognize them until up close,” Grossman said.
Grossman is on the dance team and said that wearing a mask posed challenges to athletes.
“In dance practice, it was significantly harder to breathe and exert the same amount of energy that we would have without the masks,” Grossman said.
BU offered students fully online or hybrid classes, and many like Grossman made the choice to learn online as it allowed for them to stay in the comfort of their homes. Although those at home were able to avoid mask requirements and social distancing, it limited important social interaction.
As for colleges along the west coast, California’s Occidental College is also requiring individuals to wear a mask indoors at all times. According to Occidental College’s vaccination protocol, all students, staff and faculty must be fully vaccinated. Vaccinated students will still have to wear a mask outdoors if they are in a crowded area.
Theresa Nevins, a senior and volleyball player at Occidental College, shared how much practices and games are expected to change now with the mask mandates.
“I definitely think [wearing masks] will affect the volleyball season. It’s obviously a lot harder to breathe in a mask when you’re getting into those deeper rallies and working hard and breathing hard as well,” Nevins said. “I think that we are going to need time to get adjusted.”
In a study by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, it was concluded that universal mask-wearing is the most effective way to prevent another worldwide outbreak. This is due to the fact that masks remove the larger respiratory particles when sneezing, coughing, speaking and breathing.
Trends of COVID-19 infection as reported by the AAAS show the benefits of wearing a mask in terms of transmitting dangerous respiratory particles through sneezing, coughing, speaking, and breathing.
Based on data regarding the new Delta variant of COVID-19 spreading quickly, colleges across the country updated their mask-wearing protocols.
In a study by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, it was concluded that universal mask-wearing is the most effective way to prevent another worldwide outbreak. This is due to the fact that masks remove the larger respiratory particles when sneezing, coughing, speaking and breathing.
Trends of COVID-19 infection as reported by the AAAS show the benefits of wearing a mask in terms of transmitting dangerous respiratory particles through sneezing, coughing, speaking, and breathing.
After a full academic year of online learning and minimal campus presence, American University’s students and faculty will return to campus this fall. All individuals must be vaccinated before the school year, and vaccinated students will also be required to wear masks, in accordance with the CDC’s mask guidelines.
School of Communication assistant professor Sarah Menke-Fish showed support for the pandemic precautions planned by AU’s President Sylvia Burwell for the upcoming year. Professor Menke-Fish reflected on the adversity of online classes in the past year and how to address the possibilities of the next year with optimism: be it online, in-person or hybrid.
“[All students can] get up every morning, [and] can say to themselves: ‘I can’t choose a lot of the things, but the one thing I can choose… I can choose my attitude, and every day presents a new opportunity to make that choice,” Menke-Fish said.
“If all they’re asking us right now is that we should protect ourselves by wearing a mask and that we can still be together – all right!” Menke-Fish said. “But I can still have smiling eyes.”