The pandemic has caused many universities to question their past practices and health standards.

Since COVID-19 doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon, schools must make adaptations to their campus.

Virtual learning

Since the beginning of 2021, many universities across the world have made the decision to move classes online, due to the rise in COVID-19 cases due to the omicron variant.

For the safety and well-being of their students universities have also created many precautionary protocols.

One of the states that has taken strong measures against this new variant is California. 

Orlyana Tantchou, a 2021 Loretto graduate and freshman at UC Berkeley (Berkeley California), said, “ ​​my school is going virtual for the first two weeks of the [spring] semester.”

This contrasts to what Britney Martinez, a 2021 Loretto graduate and Freshman at Baylor University (Waco, Texas), said “ My school has not gone virtual and I believe they won’t be going unless cases rise tremendously.”

Schools in the United States have the option to choose what they want to do, but in other countries that is not the case.

Maria Hobbs, a 2021, Loretto graduate and freshman at Universidad de Navarra, in Paloma, Spain, said “we are in person and social distancing is practiced as well as the use of masks, which are mandatory in almost all the buildings.”

On-campus testing

In order to know how many cases a campus has, the administration must conduct testing in some form.

Tantchou said “My school [UC Berkeley] is very committed to making sure that every student is able to get tested. 

There are many places to get tested around campus and it is easy to schedule appointments. 

Students returning are encouraged to get tested 1-3 days before being on campus as well.”

Texas, a state that is less strict about vaccinations and social distancing, Martinez said,“[Baylor University] has a health center where you sign up to take a COVID test any time it is open. 

The results are given back in a couple of days,” said Martinez.  

Overall opinion

Stopping the spread of the virus is necessary to create a healthy campus environment.

How do these students think their respective university is doing?

“The school is doing a good job enforcing masks to be worn in the classroom at all times. 

They don’t however enforce masks to be mandatory inside the buildings,” said Martinez.

Hobbs said, “I wouldn’t change anything. I think Universidad de Navarra is handling it well.”

Finally, Tantchou said, “I think my school is doing a great job at handling the pandemic. 

There’s not much I would change. 

I’m grateful that my school is looking out for its students by giving us two weeks of virtual school to make sure we aren’t in person during the height of omicron.”

As one looks to the future, COVID-19 seems like it will be here for the coming years.

Universities have and continue to work to make their campus’ as safe as possible for all students.