Max Augugliaro
News Editor
With almost a full year of COVID-19 under our belts, we seem to be closer to the light at the end of this 1,000,000 mile tunnel.
With some approved vaccines being slowly but surely distributed worldwide, we might finally be able to take off our masks, eat in a crowded restaurant, and at least set aside some fears that the world is ending soon.
However, until the vaccine is widely distributed, and open to the public, the masks stay on, and we stay six feet part!
While we are still in a pandemic, discussions around people’s safety within it are still prevalent.
One such discussion that hits home on ESU’s Campus is that of coming back to campus in the fall.
While ESU has made its intentions to bring students back to campus clear, the future is hard to predict.
making the prospect of it hard to determine.
For most people, there will always be that inner worry of putting other people’s health at risk for your own wants and desires.
So, is wanting to come back to campus this Fall selfish?
From my perspective, no.
As a commuter student who usually spends most of my days on campus, I do not doubt that I can find the right balance between hustling around campus again, and keeping the campus, and myself, safe.
Most of my pre-COVID daily routine on campus consisted of going to classes, eating lunch at one of the food stations, and then studying the rest of the day until campus closes (while listening to Jazz on my way home!)
While in-person classes may return in the fall, a continuation of online learning, with everyone back on campus, would be fine if I am around my friends (socially distanced, of course!).
Some human interaction, other than that with your family, is way better than being couped up in your house all day long.
Just as long as we taking the right precautions when doing it!
Also, studying in the library would not be much different as it was, especially with distanced tables and other furniture.
Being able to physically attend club meetings, watch sporting events, and/or partake in other campus activities would be excellent to experience again! As long as we are willing to make sacrifices.
An important sacrifice that will need to be made is students resisting the urge to party.
It is no secret that ESU has a well-known reputation of being a party school. So well-known that a friend of mine, who goes to school in Scranton, once told me that students there were talking about parties here.
This will be an issue because parties are very dangerous in this situation.
Not only are you risking the health of others, but you also are risking the prospect of a campus outbreak, which would more likely than not close-up campus again.
No, wanting to return to campus isn’t inherently selfish, but it’s important that we do the right thing in order to keep everyone safe if it gets to that point.
But who knows? Maybe we will be past the pandemic once the vaccines are sorted out. And life might truly be back too normal! Only time will tell.
Until then, we should all be welcoming the prospect of experiencing life on campus again. Albeit slightly modified if needed, but still a huge win in a return to normalcy!
But with this comes many sacrifices.
Please do not be selfish and make us take two steps back from this prospective step towards normalcy.
Email Max at:
maugugliar@live.esu.edu
