Friday, January 07, 2022
Carnegie Mellon University says it will begin spring semester remotely
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Spring semester at Carnegie Mellon University will begin remotely as campus leaders there Thursday became the latest in Pennsylvania and nationally to decide if they can hold in-person classes safely with cases of the omicron variant surging.
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As much as it breaks my heart to go into this second semester not in full force as I was lucky enough to experience last semester, I completely understand why this is the safest way to move forward. I’m sure everyone is disappointed, but hopefully these two weeks online will help us have a healthier and more productive semester ahead of us. However, I think that a lot of the stresses mentioned by my peers comes from recognizing this delay as a warning of something more to come. For example, in March of 2020 it seemed that we would only be leaving school for the same period of time: two weeks. Then we ended up not going back to school that year or for much of the next year. Obviously this builds anxiety and caution into us at the announcement of a temporary online solution which can often be worrisome.
I feel like we all kind of saw this coming with the omicron variant and the rise in cases over the holidays. There was no way that we could have done in-person learning when there have been more cases in the US than ever. And like Jeremy said, it does suck to not be able to come back into the spring semester in full force, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. It’s just sad that it wouldn’t have to be this way if other people would take accountability like wearing a mask or getting the booster shot. Hopefully in two weeks, we can all come back together like we did last semester. I read in some news articles that they think this will all be over in a few months and with everything in me I hope they’re right. Because going online again will royally suck this year.
Because of everything that has occurred since Covid-19 shut down the world, it seems like a lot of people hold fear and resentment towards those who make the choices to put life back online or cancel an event. We’ve all had things taken away, two weeks turns into a year and because no one really has answers all of this tension builds up and people start bending the rules. I get why everyone is upset, I’m upset too. We’re in the same mourning cycle that we’ve been going through since March 2020, it's disappointing and tiring and comes with a lot of hopelessness. Of course, you always do your part; staying in, zoom class, always wearing a mask, and yet you keep ending up in the same spot. I hope that it is truly only two weeks of online, but we’ve all heard that one before. I’m going to prepare for the worst and figure out how to make the most out of second semester while staying healthy and safe.
I can’t say I didn’t see this coming. I feel like everywhere I turn, someone I know is telling me they have COVID, or know at least someone, or multiple people who have it. After a full year of online instruction for my first year here, the online classes will seem more normal to me than the in-person instruction we were able to have in the fall. Naturally, the increase in cases and worry about COVID is a fast road to increased anxiety, especially for me. But, I’m holding out hope that things will continue to improve and we will be moving back towards all in-person classes in February. It’s much better to make sure we are staying safe and healthy to the best of our abilities, so I completely understand the school’s decision here. It won’t be super fun at all to not be able to come back to school this spring in full force, but I hope we can find some joy either way.
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