College students react to going back on campus

With DMACC holding most classes online, how are other schools with face-to-face classes working around COVID-19?

Iowa State University and The University of Iowa are currently the number one and number three hottest spots for COVID in the world. Story County currently has 3,238 cases with a 9.4 percent positivity rate, and 17 deaths as of Sept. 16. Johnson County has 4,936 cases with a 8.2 percent positivity rate, and 27 deaths as of Sept. 16, according to statistics from the state. But that isn’t stopping many of the students from going to school and living their lives.

Brant Watson, a business major at ISU and president of the third floor in the Larch residence hall, said that he keeps himself and others safe by wearing a mask everywhere he goes. He said, “[I make] sure that if I have people over that we don’t have too many people come in. If I am around somebody that had COVID or could be positive I make sure to tell my friends, ‘Hey I was with this person so be cautious.’” 

He also said that he isn’t worried about the spike in COVID cases because of his age. “I think that almost everyone in campus housing is pretty young so I think that, even if we do have it, as long as we stay on campus and aren’t infecting people out in public that we’ll be fine.” 

Mason Simmons, student-athlete and business major at South Western Community College, said, “No, it does not worry me that Iowa is a hotspot for COVID right now because eventually everyone’s going to have it and there’s nothing we can control about it. Right now just got a try and live our life to the full us we can right now with all the precautions and safety measures put in place.”

The schools make it mandatory to wear a mask, sit apart from others while in class, and not gather in large groups. However, Aveda Institute is a different story.

Sierra Boge-Kirby, majoring in esthiology at Aveda stated, “We have to wear mask, but we don’t have to sit apart from others because we do hands-on learning, so it would be difficult to learn what to do in a salon if we don’t get to work on other people.”

Another question is if sports will continue or be shut down. Simmons said, “I have 38 kids on the baseball team with me right now. We are only practicing with 20 kids because 18 of us are out sick or in quarantine because we’ve been exposed to COVID, so I don’t think we will continue much longer.” 

It can be difficult for many to adjust to the new normal with classes going online and wearing masks everywhere you go. Simmons at SWICC said, “I kind of have adjusted to it, it’s just definitely different than what everything was like before,” he said.

For others like Watson and Boge-Kirby, it wasn’t too difficult to adjust.

Watson stated, “I’ve adjusted to it although I’m not a huge fan of it. I am pretty used to it. I have a schedule on Google calendar, so it’s kind of nice because I can stay on one consistent schedule”.

Boge-Kirby added, “It was hard getting adjusted to it at first because I wasn’t used to wearing a mask all day every day but it has become very normal to me and I’m used to it now.”