By Maille Bennett
Changes on campus due to COVID-19 can be seen just by looking around.
There are hand sanitizing stations in the hallways, boxes of paper face masks, and sanitizing wipes for the desk. There is also a different energy perceived on campus.
“I feel as though people aren’t out and about as they used to be, campus is much quieter. It seems harder to build a sense of community and sense of life on campus with everything going on in the world and all of the new rules and guidelines we have to follow” Emma Rose Asher, a senior at Stonehill College, said.
The changes on campus included a list of new rules and guidelines to follow while present on campus. According to the “Skyhawk Promise,” the rules include always wearing a face covering while outside of your room, not having guests in the dorms that do not live in the building, and not hosting or attending gatherings that exceed room capacity or where physical distancing is not possible.
“Our classes are mostly online, if they’re not online then they’re in classrooms. We are spaced out six feet apart, there are less people in the classroom, and we’re wearing our face masks,” senior Megan Duffy said.
Class sizes are reduced for in-person classes, some classes are hybrids, and some classes have gone fully remote. While attending class, everyone, including the professor, must be wearing a face covering. All desks are spaced out six feet from each other. While entering classrooms all students are required to wipe down their desk and chair they are sitting at to keep the furniture clean all day.
“Personally, going into class the first time after COVID started was a shock because I had to wipe down my desk and chair, which I wasn’t used to at first. This made me realize just how much of an impact COVID can have on individuals in classrooms, and just how safe Stonehill is trying to be,” Senior Yara Nassif said, “It made me feel safer knowing that Stonehill is taking all these precautions for students in their classrooms”
Hybrid classes are through Zoom and in person. Depending on what the professor wanted, the class could be split into two groups, A and B. The two groups meet at different times on different days. This is to help keep students separated yet still in class with the professor. It helps keep the students in contact with the professor and classmates.
Stonehill is trying to keep life at school just as normal as it was before COVID, however these new changes will be considered the new normal for life on campus. Online classes have all assignments submitted through eLearn and professors are in contact with students through Zoom. Online classes are either at the same time as the originally scheduled time or a different time depending on what the professor decided.
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