With the beginning of the semester behind us and the first week over, the elephant in the room is still ever so present: how is the UIS experience changing due to being open during COVID-19? And how are the students handling things along the way?

What’s most important to consider above most else is how students’ academics are being affected by this transition into on-campus learning. Many students seem to appreciate the choice to prominently provide classroom courses, greatly, due to it being a preferred method of retaining information and class material. On the flipside, there are also students who find frustration with the speed of classroom learning, as it makes it difficult for them to keep up with things in the same way they have been with Zoom learning. That said, there is a great deal of adjustment needed for this transition to go smoother, and that may be due to the passing of time and introduction to methods of managing class material via professors.

One of the clearest ways that things have changed on the UIS campus is with regard to the way social gatherings take place. Yes, the masks are an obvious aspect. But even despite this, there does not seem to be the expected tone of distance that should come with distance. In fact, the biggest change is the comfort students have taken in the face of the COVID-19 resurgence in the form of the Delta variant. This is likely a result of the weekly testing the campus enforces for vaccinated individuals, as well as biweekly testing for non-vaccinated individuals, making it so the UIS campus feels as safe as the efforts are making it. This can provide both positive and negative consequences. Despite campus guidelines enforcing masks, students could potentially pass COVID-19 along, due to decisions made from their comfort with the situation.

The hope is that students can take the campus reopening to mean good things, and can look forward to the promise being upheld to keep the campus safe throughout the time students spend on it. From the newly gained procedures to regulations for cleanliness, there is only hope that there will not be a need for a second campus shut-down and we can move forward, free from that concern.