By: Lizz Panchyk
With the fall season comes a new beginning for all students, whether they be in elementary school, middle school, high school or college. However, this “new beginning” got a rough start as Covid-19 precautions have become a part of our daily lives. Every school has a different approach to reach its maximum safety. Adelphi’s reassurances to keep their students safe has made an impressionable impact on all of us.
This includes a wide variety of changes made throughout the campus, such as mask requirements and dining procedures. Students are to wear a mask both outside and inside to keep their fellow faculty and classmates safe. Adelphi has also gone cash-free to prevent further spread of sickness; only ID cards with meal plans or credit/debit cards are to be used to buy food. With that, there are much more outdoor seating areas that are provided throughout the campus. There’s a lawn full of chairs right outside the Panthers’ Den and a set of picnic tables across from Blodgett Hall. The Nexus Building also has seating surrounding the perimeter of the building for students to enjoy their food or drink from the Paws Cafe. Having outdoor seating available throughout the campus is a great way to help keep people safe, while also giving students the option if they feel more comfortable being outside rather than inside.
Because a great deal of professors have switched to online classes, buildings and rooms have been made available at the disposal of students for attending their classes Zoom calls. There is a list of available areas with times they are available on the Adelphi website. Furthermore, hand-sanitizing stations and temperature scanners have also become widespread on campus to be used whenever one feels is necessary. Also, Covid-19 screenings are completed through the AU2GO app, asking questions about health and further agreeing to social distance and wear a mask while on the campus. Public Safety will ask to see the completed green screens that show up when a student is cleared. This prevents students who are sick from coming onto campus, thus keeping the rest of the campus safe.
Being a first-year at Adelphi, I don’t know what college life was like before everything was shut down. So I didn’t necessarily have to re-center myself with new additions that were placed on campus. I think that the toughest transition was not being able to properly finish my senior year to further prepare me for attending a university. Other first-years agree.
Courtney Reddan said, “I think Adelphi did a good job and they’re doing their best to keep students safe. I feel like the checking of the app to make sure we are cleared has gradually gotten easier. It definitely affects freshmen as it is so annoying that our senior year never ended the way it should’ve and now our freshman year of college will never be the way it should’ve been. I am however glad that they are putting our safety first, although it is still an unfortunate situation.”
We may not have received the senior year of high school, or even the freshman year of college we deserved, but as Adelphi continues to put our health and safety first, life on campus will gradually seep back into normalcy.
While certain aspects of college life have changed, Adelphi’s atmosphere hasn’t. Adelphi has proven that their priorities as a Long Island campus are to keep their students and faculty safe and healthy and protected from the possibility of becoming a Coronavirus campus. Students have quickly accustomed to this new code of safety that Adelphi follows. It may not be easy to learn over Zoom or wear a mask for an entire day, but people all over campus follow the new rules gracefully and do what they can to better or simplify the experience for both themselves and for others. While many are still hesitant about reopenings in general, the only way to make it happen and make it last is to take every precaution necessary or that is required by state law.
With this, we as a campus can recover faster from the spring semester that was taken away from us. This Fall semester, though different from others, will allow us to start a new beginning as we separate our wants from our needs and keep our heads up in hopes of a better school year.