I am grateful to be back on campus. Leaving in the middle of last semester was rough for all of us, and I know many colleges and universities have decided to do remote learning full-time for the fall semester. Being back at Bluffton has brought me, and I hope the rest of Bluffton’s community, great joy.
Even though we get to be on campus this year and are excited to see our friends and professors, we as a community of respect need to do our part in keeping each other safe.
Doing so means following all Protect the Dam protocols established by Bluffton University.
Before you start your day, you need to go to my.Bluffton.edu and record your temperature and symptoms. If you don’t have a fever or symptoms of COVID-19 then you are ready to interact with the campus community.
If you are unsure of what Bluffton has put into place to help keep you safe, you can visit Bluffton.edu to get a complete list of responsibilities for students, faculty and staff.
There are some extra things we can do to help keep COVID-19 numbers low on campus.
In the Commons, the tables have four chairs to a table. If you have a group of five, try sitting with three at one table and two at another instead of moving a chair to have a table of five.
If someone asks you to properly wear your mask or properly social distance, don’t be rude to them. They want to keep our school safe — to keep you safe — and so should you.
Try spending more time outside. Use Basset Plaza to do homework or hang out with friends. You could also play some tennis ball golf or sand volleyball.
These rules and guidelines may seem tedious to some, but they are set in place to help keep students, faculty and staff safe.
On Wednesday, Aug. 19, President Jane Wood sent out an email saying Bluffton University has moved into a code Yellow.
After 400 student-athletes were tested for the coronavirus a handful of students did test positive and have moved to the off-campus housing site to quarantine. The specific number of cases has not been made public.
Students need to be diligent in doing our part to keep the chances of moving to Red as low as possible.
Last spring, when Bluffton followed Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s call to send students home, it was not a fun time. Everyone suddenly had to adjust to online classes and figure out a new routine.
I am sure most of you don’t want to leave campus before the end of the semester, so following the Protect the Dam protocols will be in your best interest.
When students were sent home it meant a lot of activities, events and cross-cultural experiences were canceled. We lost experiences that we never got to have.
One of the many things that makes Bluffton University unique from other schools is the requirement to go on a cross-cultural. It’s something I had been looking forward to since my first year. For my cross-cultural experience, I was going to go to Germany and Central Europe; however, that was canceled.
I was then planning to go to Los Angeles in the Spring of 2021 to complete my internship, but I was emailed over the summer and learned the program was being canceled for the 2020-21 year.
It’s really disappointing to have something, to no fault of anyone, be taken away from you, so it is important to do our part in keeping each other safe. This will help ensure we get to stay on campus throughout the semester.
I want this semester to go as smoothly as possible, and I’m sure you don’t want to go home mid-semester. If we all do our part we can help Bluffton protect the dam.
Senior Nicole Centofanti, managing editor for The Witmarsum.
