Picture this: the crisp late-summer air blows color-changing leaves off the trees outside the Predolin Humanities Center. The sculpture outside the Sonderegger Science Center spins rapidly as a result of that late-summer air. Weeds and wildflowers protrude out of cracks in the sidewalks that lead from Wingra to Mazzucchelli Hall, and the waters of Lake Wingra crash steadily against the boardwalk.
And we, the students of Edgewood College, know all of this is happening because we’ve returned to on-campus instruction after an abrupt transition to remote learning.
Sounds nice, doesn’t it? Students and faculty alike are hoping for an expedited return to the learning space we all share. But phasing back into on-campus instruction too soon does not come without extraordinary risk.
Let’s start at higher education’s central focus – finances.
It’s no secret that universities are under intense financial pressure to reopen campus facilities in the fall. The sudden closures of dormitories and dining halls and cancellations of sporting events have caused staggering losses worldwide. The University of Wisconsin System projects a minimum $170 million loss for the Spring 2020 semester alone.
Some small, private colleges similar to Edgewood College have even been forced to close their doors permanently. MacMurray College near Springfield, Ill., announced that the economic disruption brought on by the pandemic influenced but did not define their decision to remain closed, and Wells College in New York has warned its admitted students that without a full campus return in the fall, their school cannot afford to reopen.
Several universities, Edgewood included, have said that in the anticipation of a fall reopening, they will heed recommendations of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and strictly enforce social distancing measures.\
According to the CDC, proper social distancing calls for six feet between all people, limitation of close contact with people outside one’s immediate household, and avoidance of group gatherings. By definition, a return to campus directly violates these guidelines.
Collaborative learning and hands-on work in laboratories are unachievable by these standards. Checking out books or using the library’s computers are, in theory, a potentially fatal health hazard.
Edgewood sports teams will play with empty stadiums on the off chance they get to compete. Dormitory life is a breeding ground for germs even without a national pandemic. Featuring narrow hallways (come on, I know you’ve been in Weber Hall before) and communal hygiene centers, a full return to campus asks incoming students– who have spent the entirety of quarantine in their own environments, interacting with their own network – to share close quarters with other people.
If campus reopens in the fall, students and faculty will have two choices: mask up and enter a potential COVID-19 warzone at their own risk, or sit out a semester, forfeiting their positions.
We all are in our own unique circumstances; but I speak on behalf of all other Edgewood College seniors who have graduation on our minds and are forced to come to terms with the fact we may contract a lethal upper respiratory disease throughout the final semester of our undergraduate pursuit.
There is only one way to alleviate students from making these kinds of decisions and prioritize the health and safety of students and staff, and that is to commit to a fully online fall semester. By committing to remain online for Fall 2020 sooner than later, we allocate enough time for students to adjust to new circumstances and for professors to design enriching online learning modules.
Remote learning isn’t anyone’s favorite–I think that goes without saying. I can’t say I enjoyed the spring semester experience; but what I can say is that it is safer, and with ample preparation, can still be enriching.
To those that sit in the hot seat, responsible for ultimately determining how and when our college will move forward, I urge you to think critically about the detriment that reopening campus for the sake of ‘good news’ presents. I urge you to allow financial concerns to take a backseat, and consider the lives of each of the students, faculty and staff that have made a home out of Edgewood College. I urge you to make a decision that keeps our small yet powerful community safe.
And right now, that looks like staying home.
-Gillian Schultz, 2020-21 senior
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