College Closures

[Damniel]

Hi guys.

This week has been absolutely confusing and overwhelming for all of us, but can be even more of a logistical/emotional mess for college students. For my school, we were normally supposed to be on spring break from March 6-22, however, on Thursday my college notified us all that classes will not be held in person until April 10th (this may be longer depending on what happens with this pandemic). The school told us that those already off campus should not come back unless for extraordinary circumstances and those who cannot go back home (like students who are international, homeless, or cannot go back home for any other reason) can stay in the dorms. As I was already on spring break, I have to stay home for much longer than I packed for and cannot see my friends for a while as I study out-of-state. I also know that many students currently studying abroad are being sent back and those who were on vacation are trying to figure out what to do.

As I know many colleges have and continue to close down, I wanted to get your perspective on this especially stressful time as each school is doing things differently. Most are switching to distantant/online learning but others are shutting down entirely. Some schools are closing campus for the whole semester while others are only closing for a few weeks. Some are asking all students to move while others are allowing students with no other option to stay.

What's your experience like? I want students to have a place to vent out their frustrations/fears and be able to support one another in such a confusing time.

 

[Hopeless Opus]

i've been extremely stressed out about it since the virus first became a threat in january. i've been hoping for my uni to close and it finally has. i won't be going back until the first week of april, but i don't understand why we will be going back to begin with. i'd rather just stay home and have all classes online. it won't be that hard of a transition for the professors since most classes have all the resources online anyway. i just don't want to risk getting a virus for a grade. it's so frustrating.

 

[Fey]

Similar to your situation, we were notified of school closing this Wednesday during Spring Break.

Students dependent on campus housing can stay in their dorms, but everyone else is told to stay away. I live in the neighborhood surrounding campus, and the word that comes to mind is post-apocalyptic; empty streets, empty businesses. None of the usual noise and bustle.

They say our classes are being moved online until April 6th, but nobody really expects to return for the rest of the semester—that the circumstances will be better by then. It’s utterly surreal, going on Spring Break and suddenly not having something to come back to.

 

[Damniel]

i've been extremely stressed out about it since the virus first became a threat in january. i've been hoping for my uni to close and it finally has. i won't be going back until the first week of april, but i don't understand why we will be going back to begin with. i'd rather just stay home and have all classes online. it won't be that hard of a transition for the professors since most classes have all the resources online anyway. i just don't want to risk getting a virus for a grade. it's so frustrating.

for some people, their college campus is more than just a school. a lot of my fellow schoolmates are concerned over their school health insurance, access to campus consueling, work study jobs, and meal plan since they may not have the resources to access these services back home. While I love my family, I do not enjoy having to be back home for a month now; there's nothing left for me here. I'm especially at a lost for an internship I was doing near campus that is being paused now. While I understand and support schools trying to slow the spread of the virus, many students who have centered their lives around their campus must now suddenly adjust to being away

 

[cornimer]

Here in Canada we already had our "spring break" in February, and the next 3 weeks were actually the last 3 weeks of our semester. So basically we have to do the last 3 weeks at home, and then we go back to school and it's final exam time (assuming that we get to go back). This sucks for everyone but it's especially confusing for music students, and even our Dean said himself that this is going to get extremely complicated. Majority of our classes have performance-based final exams and assignments based on the nature of our courses, and a lot of those are group/ensemble performances so they can't even be done via Skype (Skype quality sucks anyways). Our professors all have to completely redo their marking scheme and will probably have to make up new final assessments.

As a further complication, every student in the school has to do a recital at the end of the year. Yesterday they said recitals taking place during quarantine time are "postponed" and recitals scheduled after quarantine time are "TBD". My recital was going to be April 21 so it can theoretically still happen, but first they will have to reschedule all of the recitals from quarantine time so it's going to get very messy. On top of that, private lessons are cancelled for the rest of term, so if we do have recitals, we are all going to be very underprepared.

I'm just hoping they don't push any final assessments after the end of April because I start working full time during the second week of May. And I hope the lack of performances doesn't affect my ability to graduate in June :/

 

[Trundle]

My spring break was the 1st to the 7th, and I've been back in classes for a week. Now my school is cancelling ALL classes for the next week, and resuming classes online on the 23rd until the end of the semester. This kinda sucks for me since I'm in my last semester of university before I graduate, so it looks like I won't be having a traditional transition out of university. On the other side, I love being home so I am glad I'll have more time to play New Horizons.

 

[meo]

We only are supposed to have one week spring break at mine. Technically monday it was supposed to resume.
However they've now extended break through next week with the intention of continuing on the 23rd.
They say it's so they can take the week to reformat how they're going to have all classes swapped to an online format. However for those of us in healthcare programs/nursing/etc which are primarily clinicals and labs, we're all pretty worried on how this will affect us.

I'm supposed to get more info next week as they figure it out. I'm just hoping whatever they decide doesn't impair our coursework this semester or put off our graduation date which is supposed to be next spring.

 

[Soigne]

it's so frustrating. we were originally supposed to be on spring break starting today - march 23, but they've extended it an extra week & i believe we will be going online when we return in april. it's especially frustrating at my school because at the end of April, there is normally a day where we don't have classes but we have a day of student presentations -- mainly seniors who are presenting on their major projects. my presentation for that day is part of the requirement for me to graduate, so I'm not sure what's going to happen if that day gets cancelled. I've been preparing for that large presentation for a while & now, last minute, we're going to have to do something completely different. public speaking is a huge fear of mine and it's taken me a while to warm up to this idea, and now i have no idea what to expect. my anxiety is through the roof.

 

[Zura]

Well I don't get Spring Break for my classes and they're online so they'll never be cancelled yay

 

[Wisteria Rytsar]

I wasnt too concerned about my situation school wise until Thursday evening right after the school closed for the day I got a text message saying that classes would be suspended until the 20th. It was unclear on if we should go to class Friday, which they had to send another message to clarify that she shouldnt. Now I am very concerned about my classes cause I have no clue if they will be online or if/when we will return to face to face instruction. All of my classes were in person and I personally need them to be. Online classes isn't something for everyone and people forget about that. I understand and respect why so many people wanted the schools to close but its the idea of moving all the classes online that has me extremely worried. I wont know until the 19th what is going on so I'll probably post again

 

[Shellzilla_515]

At the beginning of the semester when the virus was first discovered, I wasn't very worried. Unfortunately, the situation has escalated which impacted our learning. I have a couple of classes that are hands on so this negatively impacts me. Worst of all, I'm more than halfway through the semester (which is also my final one) and close to graduating. The details are still minimal on my side but I'm not sure if some classes will be skipped or pushed back. Of course, some of the classes will be held virtually. Sure, I can relax for a while, but I have a course that actually takes place online, so expectations might be a little higher there...

 

[Bikaku_Quinx]

My school announced the transition to online classes rather quickly, and then literally the day after that... someone tested positive for coronavirus in our town. Absolutely wild, I say. While I don’t mind online classes, I completely understand why they can be frustrating. My main concern is for everyone who has lab classes and still have to show up to campus.

 

[tifachu]

All of my college's classes are moved to strictly online-only instruction for the rest of the semester.
It's very unfortunate, because a face-to-face and individualized education was what I am paying for. However that's just my American entitlement speaking; I know full well this is for the better and the safety of everyone.
It's particularly frustrating for me because I'm one of those people who needs human interaction and a strict schedule of getting out and going outside to be healthy and splitting "me-time" from work time. Staying inside for class, where I can eat as much junk as I want, or lay in bed from home, is just going to make it easy for me to fall back into major depression and depressive tendencies, which I've struggled with for most of my life.
The good thing is that my college's services are remaining in operation - so academic support, on-campus living, and work-study programs won't be affected, and I will still have access to my college's computer labs. A lot of my projects (I'm a graphic design student) require me to work in large-scale, and great file sizes, which I cannot do on my junky laptop at home.

 

[Alienfish]

Hoo boy, they closed down one uni southern Sweden, and some individual schools on lower level as well. I really hope they don't do it for my uni/class, because it'd be really pointless to take it online, I mean the only thing they could do is like stream lecture/put up powerpoints and maybe do small tasks each week you have to hand in which ruin it largely; literature studies is heavily based on you sit and discuss either in class and/or in small groups before it depending on what class you're on. I'd rather have them postpone it to upcoming fall or maybe summer for it tbf. Selfish as it may sounds it's not that classes are that big and they could just cancel those big ass lectures if anything.

 

[Jas]

i've heard back from 3/5 professors so far - and they plan to just email notes and change the final exam to a large research paper assigned and due the day of (which honestly is more convenient for me)! the campus and services/resources are being left open for people living on campus. we definitely don't have it too bad here, but i feel for the people who have not heard back regarding their labs and people in other places who are given little to no time to evacuate their on-campus housing.

 

[visibleghost]

my university is still open, as of now. that could change any day i guess.

 

[easpa]

We're currently on our midterm break but the college has informed us that all classes will take place online for the remainder of the semester. I'm glad that's the decision they've made since sticking to business as usual would go against the idea of trying to contain the virus, but none of the module coordinators have been in touch to let us know what platform they plan on using to deliver their lectures, or what kind of assessment the end-of-term exams will be replaced by.

Since nothing's going to be happening on campus, I'm in the middle of trying to terminate my lease in Dublin because I've been living back home since midterm started. That's been a headache, plus I've been fairly low since realising I probably won't get to see most of my college friends until our graduation in September since I'm in the final year of my undergrad at the moment. Hell, if the economy tanks as much as some people reckon it might, I probably won't be able to afford the fees for the Masters I've already paid the deposit for. No point worrying about things so far in the future though I guess.

 

[xSuperMario64x]

I'm actually on my way to get the rest of my stuff from my dorm now. I live relatively close to campus so it's easy for me to get my stuff and go home. I'm upset that I have to leave my dorm already because I really enjoyed having a quiet, personal space free of clutter and dirt. Now I have to go home and deal with my parent's drama every day.

I feel bad for some of my professors cause, for instance, my German prof and my Music History prof are not tech savvy at all. I actually have my German prof asking people how they prefer to do online learning cause he doesn't even know how to handle this situation. I'm in wind ensemble and we won't be having any more rehearsals. I still don't know how my piano lessons and jury (performance exam) are gonna work. I still haven't heard back from my piano prof.

I really hate that I have to classes online. The reason why I'm in college is so that I can have that one-on-one in-laws experience. I'm gonna lose all of that for the rest of the semester. I have two classes that have writing options, one of them is taken care of but the other one is still worrying to me. I have really bad self-motivation since my mind often drifts throughout the day, so it'll be interesting to see how this all unfolds over the next two months.


The only good thing coming out of this is that I get to stay home and take care of my new puppy (he's a Golden Retriever). I need to give him the proper training and care and my mom is not capable of doing that. I'm really grateful to have him, he's helping me feel calm and collected in these trying times.

 

[SheepMareep]

My school has been switched to online and is making me miss out on a very important practicum for me where I would get to shadow a nurse during their entire 12hr shift before I graduate this semester.

I am potentially losing out on an amazing reference and experience its just... very upsetting to me.

 

[Hanami]

my uni began spring break two days early by cancelling classes on those days. the decision seemed very sudden. i knew things were escalating, but my professors (idk whether they knew or not) didn't announce any university plans or personal course plans and it seemed like my uni was trying to keep the university open for as long as possible. i'm still waiting to hear from a few professors regarding learning plans

the housing situation was (and still is) chaotic. i live in an on-campus apartment, so i received an email from my AA shortly after the university operating status announcement. it stated that residents were *highly suggested* to go home for the next few weeks, but the apartments would *remain open* during that time frame. nearly 24 hours later, i received an email stating that everyone (with the exception of international students and students who don't live in surrounding states who apply to stay) *must leave* the apartments within basically 24 hours.. many people are upset with the uni demanding we vacate the premises within 24 hours. they're requesting refunds for boarding since they were forced out of their apartments and refunds for unused meal swipes since they won't be eating at the dining halls if they're at home anyway and quite possibly for the rest of the semester