As the semester starts, students across campus have varying opinions of COVID-19, but one thing is generally agreed on– COVID-19 does not affect their daily lives.
Many students have seemingly forgotten about COVID-19.
“I haven’t really noticed anything about Covid lately. Nobody’s wearing masks anymore,” said Zavier McClain, a senior majoring in psychology.
“It finally seems like for the first time ever, you forget that COVID’s a thing when you’re out and about.”
Many students feel confident they know the ins and outs of dealing with COVID-19 and, at this point, do not seem to care.
“I know where to find tests, and the strategies, and what to avoid,” said Riley Milburn, a sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering. “Going forward, I don’t see how it would affect me and my plans.”
Many students are happy to see a sense of normality returning to the campus.
“I really like seeing people on campus because I lost the end of my senior year, I lost my freshman year, I lost my sophomore year, and so being a junior, still kind of feeling like a freshman, I’m excited to have this experience for my last two years,” said Jaedynn Page, a junior majoring in english.
Some students fear COVID-19 cases could spike again, but are glad the University is not mandating facemasks or regular testing.
“The thing is, on the one hand, I’m slightly nervous just because it could always pop up again,” explained Michelle Bronstein, a junior majoring in psychology, “but nobody really wants to wear a mask.”
Other students have no fear of COVID-19, as they believe the worst of the pandemic has passed.
“We’re long past its peak. We are, I feel, past the recovering stages and it should just become a memory in the history book. Obviously there’s still cases of it around, but those are well controlled and not in danger of becoming another outbreak,” explained freshman Tanner Hyde, who is majoring in mechanical engineering, adding, “Although, I understand some people are still concerned about it.”
Students on campus may not agree about aspects of COVID-19, but it seems that they agree it is important to value each other.
“I’ll wear a mask if I have an instructor that wears one, just because I feel like that’s the nice thing to do,” said McClain, “You’ve got to give someone as much credit as you can. You don’t need to respect their opinions, but you need to respect them as people.”
