By Ben Murphy and Madison Haller
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writers
As more colleges and universities begin to open their doors to students, there is growing concern among peers and faculty about following social distancing rules and mask mandates while off campus.
Not only are the schools reopening to college students, but restaurants and bars are opening as well. Some argue that going out is an integral part of the college experience, while others say that the safety of those on campus is paramount.
“I think large parties are clearly problematic, and I think that’s one of the concerns that students who have opted to stay at home and not come in for class have because they just feel maybe they can’t trust their classmates to be safe all the time,” said Jenny Glick, a lecturer in journalism at Loyola University.
Glick is one of many professors who sees students on a daily basis and puts a lot of trust in them to follow the school’s COVID-19 rules and regulations.
Inside the classroom, Glick said everybody must wear a mask at all times and maintain social distancing. Classes are limited to seven or eight students at a time. Loyola currently has campus and residential living open for the Spring semester as well as virtual learning options.
But COVID-19 regulations in the classroom are not always followed out of the classroom. At parties around campus students do not always wear their masks and keep their distance.
Loyola University journalism lecturer April Newton said that some students have already faced the ramifications of poor safety choices outside of class.
“It’s not like we don’t know what seems to work,” Newton said, “and there’s no reason to just ignore that. We know masks work, we know distancing works, we just need to keep doing that stuff.”
Faculty members are not the only ones who are concerned about their safety as people start to return to campus life. Students also fear that their peers’ bad decisions off campus will affect them as well.
“I think it’s ridiculously unsafe,” said Vincent Karam, a sophomore geology major at Towson University, when asked about students partying. “Everyone is inside, there’s no masks, people are sharing drinks. It’s not a safe idea. There’s ways to have a safe gathering with COVID protocol. I just don’t see it happening.”
It was the safety concern of being around students that made Karam stay at home for the first semester of hybrid learning, unsure of who he would be interacting with and if they followed protocols.
Towson University is currently doing hybrid learning but looks forward to fully reopening campus and residential halls in the Fall 2021 semester.
Students across Maryland knew returning to campus would carry a higher risk than staying home one more semester.
Cameron Sloan, a senior at UMBC, said he feels that online classes this semester are a huge part of the reason why the campus has a positivity rate of only 0.7 percent. UMBC is working remotely, with 90 percent of classes being held online.
“I think bringing the students back to live on campus was the worst idea in the world,” said John Belmas, a junior at Loyola. “Everybody lives in like three buildings and mingles within those three buildings. I don’t think they should’ve brought everyone back to stick them in basically a COVID box.”
Belmas said while he does attend the occasional party, he gets tested once a week, and doesn’t go home or to campus unless he’s tested negative. He says he feels safest in his little bubble off campus.
“Staying off campus is the best option,” he said. “I know at Loyola a whole building got shut down. Just staying off campus is the way to go.”
Before students could return to Loyola University they had to participate in a back-to-school program, which included an educational campaign about COVID awareness and safe measures. They also had to take a pledge to ensure they took the pandemic seriously and wanted to be a part of campus life.
“We all need to take care of each other,” Glick said.
Glick admits that while she cannot control what students do outside of the classroom, she knows her students are taking the pandemic seriously and understand that their actions affect more than just themselves.