Photo by Anastasia Pumphrey/The Summit
Junior Drew Fitzgerald helps fellow students bring extra clothing and books to their cars to prepare for a transition to online learning.
By Anastasia Pumphrey
On Sunday, students began retrieving personal belongings from their dorms after the College notified them that courses would continue online due to the spread of coronavirus.
President Fr. John Denning, C.S.C., informed the Stonehill community that the College would be making a shift to remote learning in an email sent out last Wednesday, after coronavirus cases dramatically increased across the country.
The most recent email, sent on Saturday, instructed students to only come onto campus in the next few days to “retrieve a laptop, books, or other materials needed to continue classes online, or to retrieve medication, medical devices, or other critically necessary assistive devices that were left in their room over Spring Break.”
While this retrieval is only for two weeks and not for the rest of the semester (as is the case with Harvard, MIT, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Yale, and more), many students said they are wary of even returning to finish the semester in person at all.
“I think this pandemic is going to get worse before it gets better, so I moved a lot of my stuff out for today,” junior Jacob LaFiandra, who visited the College yesterday, said. LaFiandra said that he does not think students will be returning to school when expected, but that he hopes so, in particular for the seniors’ sake.
LaFiandra said that although it “really sucks for all of the seniors that their time in college is cut short,” the nationwide quarantine is necessary to prevent the spread of the disease.
“This entire situation is unsettling,” senior and Resident Assistant Jared Salois said. “I really found a home at Stonehill and being in my senior year, to have my on-campus experience stripped away, it hurts.”
Salois said that the prospect of coming back to campus does not look good from his perspective as well. “I don’t think that we’ll be back for the semester. I know there are a lot of things being said and it is a crazy time in the world and people may not have all the facts, and I know I don’t either, but from what I’ve seen and heard so far I think it would actually be foolish to have people come on campus,” Salois said. Although he is sad about the potential loss of time, as are other seniors across the country, he said he feels the College is doing what it can to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 disease.
College officials are currently keeping an eye on the state of COVID-19 and plan to update the Stonehill community as they see fit. As of yesterday, March 15, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker put out a statement amending his original ban on public gatherings of 250+ people to now include gatherings of just 25 and over starting Tuesday, as well as “has limited all restaurants to only takeout and delivery as of Tuesday,” and lasting until mid-April, according to the Boston Globe. These limitations have affected not only restaurants but businesses all across the state, and has added to Stonehill students’ confusion about whether or not they will return.
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