Editorial: Feeling a sense of normalcy
If we’ve learned anything this semester, it is that attending an institution of higher education during a pandemic is not ideal. There is hope for students seeking some normalcy, though.
Universities across Michigan continue to see rising COVID-19 cases on their respective campuses. Grand Valley State University, for example, has 240 active cases on its campus and has begun paying its students to receive COVID-19 testing.
There is a different story unfolding on Central Michigan University’s campus.
CMU’s weekly reported COVID-19 cases have been low over the last two weeks. There were nine confirmed cases Sept. 7-13 and 12 confirmed cases Sept. 14-20
Numbers for the county have remained steady with only slight changes from week to week.
In an email to campus on Sept. 11, President Bob Davies praised students for their efforts in his quarterly COVID-19 update.
“I am grateful for the efforts you have made to help us reach this point successfully,” Davies said. “Our Emergency Management team continues to monitor the virus closely, and meets regularly to discuss developments and trends, adapting as needed to keep our campus and community as safe and healthy as possible.”
As students, we had offered criticism of the university’s handling of COVID-19. Administration has shown interest in listening to the student body as they make necessary corrections to their COVID-19 plan.
One of those changes was having on-campus testing for students, faculty and staff. There’s also a noticeable increase in efforts toward contact tracing through surveillance testing, and CMU is committed to providing new case updates every day.
After more than seven months, students are tired of living in fear and disappointment. We are all looking forward to when campus can return to normal — hopefully, in the near future.
More students are biking and walking around campus. People are taking advantage of using study spaces. There's even college football to watch on weekends -- even if isn't CMU. Even that could change in the coming days as a renewed discussion about fall football continues among MAC schools.
Last week, the Student Activity Center reopened. The clanging of dumbbells, the swish of treadmills and shoes screeching across basketball courts helped to bring a sense of normalcy to this semester.
Normal is something students are having a hard time finding in online lectures and lonely Friday nights.
Students are missing out on a lot this semester. We are started to catch glimpses of life before COVID-19 and can’t lose sight of the end goal. As things start to return to the way they were, we can’t get too comfortable.
Let’s not neglect the progress we’ve made.
Let’s get through the rest of this semester carefully, so we can regroup over winter break and return to a campus for a Spring 2021 semester that is the more of the CMU we remember.
