Students Set To Return On Campus In The Fall
By Nolan Cleary, Editor-in-Chief
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020, students have been largely prohibited from going on campus in person.
For half of the Spring 2020 semester, students were prohibited from entering campus and since the Fall of last year, students have been allowed to enter campus, but with vast regulations.
Gone are the days of busy campus life.
Despite loosened rules, most Hudson Valley Community College classes are still being held online. However, that seems to be changing soon as HVCC hopes to return to some sense of normalcy soon.
This Fall, the college is planning to return to have some classes in person. With vaccinations on the rise in America, the college is confident that they can soon get students back in the classroom safely.
According to the official Hudson Valley Community College website, “our hope is to be able to transition to holding the majority of our courses in-person/on campus again for Fall 2021 and plans are being made to safely accommodate that shift. We also plan to continue to offer a robust selection of online, remote and hybrid courses to accommodate all students’ learning needs and interests.”
Now, as students prepare to return, they say, they’re ready to go back. Tatianna Morange, the Secretary of the Student Senate, says she appreciates the work that has been done by students.
“To me, students have demonstrated that they are very capable of returning to campus. I’m super proud of our students for being awesome and compliment with testing. I know a lot of people did not like it at first, but I appreciate that it’s happening because of this we’re able to go back in the Fall. It’s helped our case,” Morange said.
Morange said she’s very confident students will be able to roam campus safely again soon. “I feel super comfortable going back to campus. My understanding is that there will be a limit when it comes to capacity in terms of how classrooms go. I do have two classes on campus at the moment. I have an environmental science lab that is on campus and I have a vertebrae Zoology class on campus,” Morange said.
Morange said the college is doing everything possible to ensure the safety of anyone going to campus as of right now. “Everyone is making an effort to be safe. Additionally, there is testing going on every week,” Morange said.
Antonio Tarver is a student in individual studies. He said, he also believes now is the time to return to campus. “I don’t want to be home. Regardless of if it’s safe or not, I don’t think we have much to fear,” Tarver said.
Morange said she’s not 100% sure if there could be another spike in COVID-19 cases in the area. She does say she is confident that it should be caught early on, as the amount of testing on campus should prepare students and staff.
“There have been cases where folks have gotten positive COVID tests and they’ve closed some sort of class or lab for a week. So it has happened. I wouldn’t say it’s something that’s happened frequently, it hasn’t happened in the class that I’ve been at, but it has happened. I believe it will happen again, but I think with the testing, you can catch it early and be solutionary with the problem,” Morange said.
On a recent episode of The Hud. podcast, Hudson Valley Community College President Roger Ramsammy said that while he’s unsure if it’s possible, he would like to aim for the college to return by as much as 92% capacity.
“You’ve heard every day, things are changing. Every week you’re hearing something different. Now we can have almost anyone high school age and older can go in and get the vaccination. So, what that says to us, is that if things are changing, the numbers of parties that can accumulate together are increasing, more businesses are opening and allowing for more things to happen. The way we look at it is, Fall could almost return to what it used to be like, but of course, the policies and procedures still have guidance,” Ramsammy said.