The myth of in-person classes

As the second week of “on-caus” class begins for many Gusties, many of us are starting to realize that Zoom university from our dorm rooms is not much different than Zoom university from our houses. The sudden change that many students were faced with just days before move-in weekend took many students off-guard, including myself. Finding out that all my classes were to stay online when previously only one had been scheduled to do so was shocking. These announcements from professors were swift, and in my experience, totally out of the blue. Students were not even informed of the college’s decision to open the decision period for professors for a second time. All within 24 hours, I was informed in less than a few minutes from each class, that the class would be staying online for the duration of the semester. In some cases, I was given little to no reasoning for these decisions.
“I was disappointed to say the least that all my classes were online because some of my classes were very small. I actually trust Gusties to be safe in these classes. But I do understand that health comes first, and anything could happen” Junior Emma Pufahl said.
To say I was disappointed is an understatement. Disappointment may not even be the right word. I was, and still am, frustrated and worried about my education this semester. And this is not to say that Gustavus faculty are not going above and beyond to provide the best education that they can?they most definitely are. But in my opinion, a class that was meant to be in person that moved online will never reach the same level or potential that it otherwise would have.
On the other hand, I can understand why many professors made the decisions that they did. Many were put between a rock and a hard place by having students in the same class with wildly different circumstances. How do you teach a class with some students in-person and others totally online?
However, I question why more cases were not put fully online in the decision period that was available in August. While I understand that some Gusties choose or need to be fully online for the semester, more classes should have been available to them that were completely online, rather than changing the plan for everyone more then three weeks into the semester.
A big part of the reason that I came back to campus was because I was anticipating having the ability to attend in-person classes. Like many other students, I struggle quite a bit with online classes. To me, it feels just overwhelming to meet together over Zoom sparingly and do much of the work alone. Instead of truly learning, I end up only being able to focus on what is due by the end of the week and how I am going to get it done.
“Students deserved way more of a heads up about professors being able to move their classes online midway through the semester. It just wasn’t fair and created even more unnecessary uncertainty for students coming back to campus,” Junior Abbie Kavouras said.
When in-person classes were canceled, I was very nervous to come back to campus and still am. What is the college experience worth when you spend all day in your apartment in class, and most events are over Zoom? It is extremely difficult to make decisions about who to spend time with and make time to see other people when you can’t even get any social interaction in class.
Overall, I was disappointed with the unprofessional manner in which students were informed of changes to the structure of their classes. I find it odd that students were not informed (to my knowledge) of this change for the faculty’s ability to change the format of their classes. If we were, it was clearly not given the attention that it deserved.
While I understand that COVID-19 makes everything unpredictable, this sudden change to some students’ entire semester was so last minute that it should have been handled much more delicately. Coming back to campus and sitting in the dorms all day was not exactly what I had in mind for a safe return, or what I thought I would be paying for. But for now, we all have to adapt to this nonsensical semester and hope that things go a little bit smoother in the spring.