Thursday, March 11 marked one year since the evacuation of campus due to COVID-19. The 2020 spring semester came to a halt when the Global Health Organization announced that COVID-19—commonly referred to at the time as simply the “Coronavirus”—was officially considered a global pandemic.
Students received emails in the late afternoon on Thursday, March 11, asking them to go home where classes would continue via Zoom, as a way to protect all students, faculty and staff from the virus. With no one truly knowing the effects of the virus at the time, there were no clear answers as to whether the students would return to campus to complete the semester.
The original email sent out to all students stated that the students would be off campus for two weeks, giving time for the administration to form a proper plan on how to continue the semester. At the end of the two-week period, however, COVID-19 rates in t he United States were continuing to rise, and the possibility of in-person classes kept getting pushed farther and farther away.
Sophomore middle childhood education major Connor Case reflects on leaving campus because of COVID-19 photo by Payton Stephens
Conner Case, a sophomore middle childhood education major, received word of the campus evacuation while in World History class with Martina Cucchiara and ended up being the one to raise their hand and inform Cucchiara. Case was surprised by the news at the time, thinking the small population on campus would have a difference.
Case didn’t know much about the virus when being sent home, his only knowledge of it being that it was similar to the flu, but easier to catch and spread. At that point in time, he wasn’t concerned about it. It wasn’t until online classes started to be considered the “new normal”that he saw a huge affect on himself.
“It was definitely easier to do school at school,” Case said. “I found myself getting distracted at home, wanting to work on other things, or just wanting to spend more time with my family. It was weird being in the house with my family all the time while trying to do schoolwork.”
When arriving back on campus for in-person learning for the 2020 fall semester, Case was relieved. He didn’t care if he had to wear a mask or symptom check, he was just happy to be back to school.
Along with classes switching online, the state of athletics was also up in the air with no definite answers for anyone. Emily Dyson, a sophomore exercise science major, was at softball practice when the email came through. She said that when she and her teammates received the email everyone couldn’t help but react knowing this would alter their season somehow.
“Our coach told us to put our phones away, and then I think we all cried,” Dyson said.
With a year of lockdown under our belts, there has definitely been some changes due to COVID-19, all of which come from the new things we are all learning about the virus each day. As disruptive as it was having to leave campus last spring, it is hard to imagine what campus life would look like today if we hadn’t.
