Photo by Sophie Villarreal.
BCS Repopulates While Covid Concerns Linger: A Student’s Perspective
Article By: Sophie Villarreal, Staff Writer | BCS Chronicle
What You Need To Know:
Sophie Villarreal, TAMU Freshman and BCS Chronicle Intern, shares her thoughts on being on campus.
The majority of Freshmen students are encountering their first in-person lectures since their junior year of high school.
1500+ active cases of the COVID-19 virus have been reported as of September 11th.
Many have begun to take precautions, with some professors offering “extra-credit” for those who opt-in to wearing masks.
Source: TAMU COVID-19 Reporting Data
As a Freshman on campus, entering an unknown city for the first time can be extremely daunting, and setting foot on a highly-populated campus during an ongoing pandemic can make things even more complicated. For some, their first time on the A&M campus has been within the last couple of weeks, yet they’re currently on their second or third years at the university due to having taken online classes for the first part of their college careers. The majority of Freshmen students are encountering their first in-person lectures since their junior year of high school. Greek Life, Student Organizations, and other clubs have ventured out and are recruiting on-campus daily by holding mass-events both on and off campus. Having taken both in-person summer classes and attending Fall in-person classes over the past few weeks, I find it hard to describe the monumental shift in population both on campus and in the general BCS area.
With this repopulation comes positives and negatives. Positively speaking, Texas A&M Football is back on the map for College Station. This brings in revenue for the city, with tourists and visitors flocking to BCS to take in some Aggie hospitality. On the flip side, 1500+ active cases of the COVID-19 virus have been reported as of September 11th, and the numbers aren’t predicted to show any drastic decreases anytime soon.
A masked student studies at a Starbucks on the Texas A&M campus. (Photo by Sophie Villarreal)
Unsurprisingly, the amount of students masking up in classrooms, dorms, and elsewhere around campus has been minimal. Some parents have expressed concern about the potential spread of COVID-19 within community restrooms and showers. Many who live in the dorms are also worried about the potential spread that could take place among roommates living in close quarters.
Introductory and freshman-level courses are filled to the brim with students. In a room that has a capacity of 300 individuals, I observed dozens of students sitting on the stairs during their first classes and even standing in order to listen to their lecture. Students have also been seen waiting in line close to over an hour to eat at the dining hall.
Many individuals here on campus have begun to take precautions, with some professors even offering “extra-credit” opportunities for those who opt-in to wearing masks for the duration of the semester to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Other professors who are at high-risk of developing complications from the virus have gone as far as cancelling in-person classes and moving their courses to Zoom for the first weeks of school until they receive safety materials that allow them to lecture safely in their crowded auditoriums.
A professor walks to class holding a mask. (Photo by Sophie Villarreal)
While researching and exploring campus, I came across Dr. Samuel Cohn, a Professor of Sociology who has been teaching at Texas A&M since 1989. Dr. Cohn went on to tell me how for the past year he has been lecturing out of his home in Austin and commuting to College Station to give in-person lectures. After the first week of classes however, Dr. Cohn temporarily switched his class to Zoom out of concern for his own personal safety. Although his classes are now back in-person, Dr. Cohn expressed that in-person classes have put both students and faculty in profound danger. He also spoke solemnly about an exceptional research scientist he’s worked alongside for years who contracted the virus and suffered the long term effects of brain degeneration. He described how it was sad to see how one of the greatest minds he has encountered “lost functionality” from this pandemic. “(There is) a human consequence of death, both long-term sickness, and long-term loss of happiness that in-person classes will ensure, which is unconscionable by the university,” said Dr. Cohn.
While it seems that in-person classes are here to stay at Texas A&M for the foreseeable future, the ongoing pandemic will undoubtably put many individuals at risk of contracting the virus and developing complications. The classes I’ve attended have been filled seat-to-seat, shoulder-to-shoulder, with wide-eyed students awaiting their first in-person lectures. However, this seems too good to be true and, based on the steady incline of positive cases in the area, many students speculate that the transition to virtual classes may come sooner than expected.