By Julia Lopez, community reporter
UW-Eau Claire students and faculty appear to be cautiously optimistic that they’re doing what they can to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on campus, but there is concern that the efforts may not be enough.
These reactions were expressed in interviews with the CVPost as 20 new positive student cases were confirmed on Friday (Sept. 11), bringing the total of UW-EC cases to at least 142. A total of 22 students living on-campus are isolating in Putnam Hall and the university’s COVID-19 dashboard reported that an additional 80 students are quarantined on campus and not allowed to leave their rooms.
No students have been hospitalized for treatment, according to the dashboard.
Classes began Sept. 2 at UW-EC, with a mix of in-person and virtual classes. Many individual classes are using a mixture of both types of instruction.
The format seems to be working . . .so far.
Student, faculty reactions
Kate Ryan, a UW-EC junior finance major, said she’s felt safe while on campus this week.
“It seems almost normal at some points,” Ryan said. “But everyone’s wearing masks, everyone’s following the rules from what I’ve seen.”
Phaul Fishman, a musical theatre lecturer, had similar observations.
Other students said they noticed social distancing was enforced in classrooms, but not elsewhere around campus.
Allison Mulroy, a junior unified early childhood education major, said she felt particularly unsafe while waiting in an hour-long line to pick up her textbooks.
“We all had our masks on but nobody was six feet apart,” she said. “We were all on top of each other – packed.”
Are efforts enough?
Brittany Kirchoff, a junior English major, said her in-person classmates have been social distancing and cleaning their desks, but she fears that’s not enough.
“[UW-EC’s] a place that’s so cramped with so many people in it,” she said. “What do you think is gonna happen? It’s dangerous.”
Logan Schreiber, another junior unified early childhood education major, added she felt students were only social distancing on campus.
“I mean, people are going to The Pickle,” she said. “I feel like off-campus students aren’t doing as good a job at being socially distant and they’re not following the guidelines they [UW-EC] gave us.”
Carl Fossum, a junior double-majoring in chemistry and physics, agreed.
“When I see people not wearing masks or partying on Water Street, it seems like they’re not keeping other students in mind,” he said. “It seems selfish.”
Fossum added he wasn’t surprised to receive an email from the Chancellor’s Office confirming 69 positive COVID cases on Sunday, because “students are going to party regardless.”
More student reactions
Social distancing seems to be more heavily enforced among the students living on campus.
Lexi Sheridan, a freshman living in Sutherland Hall, said she and others in her residence building have been cautious.
“People aren’t as willing to talk to new people,” she said, “which I totally understand.”
Sheridan noted she has not been placed under quarantine, but some of her friends have, and she fears it could happen to her “any day now.”
Every student who spoke with the CVPost said watching cases grow on campus so soon after the beginning of the semester causes them to worry all classes may soon be moved online.
At the moment, students and professors have a mix of in-person and virtual (or Zoom) classes every week. Fishman noted the transition wasn’t as daunting as the sudden switch to online classes last spring semester.
“It’s actually been pretty easy,” he said. “Especially in my department, we’ve been thinking about this all summer…we’re ahead of the game because we’ve been thinking about it and planning.”
Fishman is also directing the fall musical, Out of My Dreams, completely virtually, through pre-recorded videos from home.
Challenges in virtual learning
Ryan said that although her professors are trying their best to provide a good education online, virtual classes come with their own set of challenges.
“It’s harder to participate and ask questions,” Ryan said. “This year, a lot of people struggle with self-motivation. Usually professors would have attendance points and whatnot, but this year you have to wake up, turn on your computer, get to a place in your house that has wifi.”
She noted one of her biggest challenges has been connecting to the internet for class, as so many students are online.
Mulroy and Schreiber both said they feel they’ve been lacking clear communication from their professors. Mulroy described her schedule and assignments as “all over the place.”
Problems for faculty, as well
Some professors said the transition hasn’t been simple for them, either.
David Tschida, a Communication and Journalism associate professor, said planning his fall courses was – and remains – difficult, as he was uncertain of factors such as classroom size or whether the university’s schedule will change before finals week.
“Faculty like certainty,” he said. “We are used to the semester-long planning for courses and that our plans give us certainty in our teaching objectives across a semester…it is unnerving and stressful to have teaching outcomes for the end of the semester and not have certainty about the steps you’ve planned and will be taking to get there.”
Tschida added classes such as public speaking or multimedia courses with labs are especially difficult to teach virtually, as students inherently lose essential elements that come from face-to-face interaction.
Prof. Paul Thomas, a Physics and Astronomy faculty member, expressed similar concerns regarding virtual natural sciences labs.
“The virtue is that it provides a way to have labs,” he said. “The downfalls are numerous, and the biggest loss is the lack of student group work.”
However, Thomas said his students have been cooperative, patient, have been following rules and behaving thoughtfully.
Blugold Protocol app
An app called Blugold Protocol, where students record their daily temperature and COVID-19 symptoms (or lack thereof), for the purpose of contact tracing was a part of the guidelines released earlier in August.
However, all students interviewed except for one admitted they had been forgetting to use the app.
Despite the challenges, students and faculty said they hope others on campus are doing their part to ensure all classes don’t have to move online this semester.
“I can’t say, ‘don’t go to The Pickle, don’t go to house parties’,” Fishman said. “But, at the same time, I want my job.”
“At what point would we switch totally online?” Ryan asked. “I feel like Eau Claire is doing their part, but I don’t know if students are doing the same outside of class.”
Note: the home page photo by Julia Lopez shows UW-Eau Claire students waiting in line for food last week in the Davies Student Center.
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