By Helen Flores, Staff Writer
Some students gathered their belongings and headed home to fight off the new coronavirus, while some students decided it was best to stay in their campus dorms or housing, as some areas on campus remain open.
Winnick Dining Hall, Starbucks and B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Library are currently open for student use. The academic buildings, Pratt Recreation Center, Winnick Honors House, and any other building on campus that isn’t a residence hall are closed until further notice.
University officials are in constant communication with all appropriate health authorities and continue to follow their recommendations to take necessary precautions for the safety of the community.
“It definitely helps with the stress that the university keeps us updated and reminds us to be safe,” Ryan Meierdierks, a senior accounting major, said. He went back home for the rest of the semester since all classes were moved online for the remainder of the semester.
Michael Zabicki, a sophomore sports management major, said he’s definitely heading home and plans to commute if he needs to return to campus for any reason. “There’s not much to do here anyway,” he said.
Deciding what to do during a crisis such as COVID-19 can be hard, especially for students weighing out the decision to stay or go home. Without many areas open on campus, the choice was easy for some.
Samantha Bell, a junior psychology major from Scotland, and Emma Braeckmans, a freshman business administration major from Belgium, felt it was in their best interest to return home. They agreed they both don’t miss the dorms or the school food but indeed miss their friends and field hockey teammates.
“It’s nice to have a break, I just miss being at school and having practice, but everything was closed so I had to come home,” Bell said.
Braeckmans is concerned it may be worse in Belgium than at school. “This situation really sucks, being from Belgium and going to school in America. I felt forced to come back which isn’t right with all the cases here,” she said.
With not much action on campus to keep resident students occupied, taking online classes in the interim has helped junior criminal justice major Ben Perez pass the time while social distancing in his dorm room.
“I mostly go get food from Winnick and come back to my dorm room and watch Netflix or Hulu and try my best to get some work done for school, but so far I’m having a horrible time in this self-quarantine thing,” Perez said.
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