The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/in-person-classes/)
With the University’s return to in-person classes on Monday, Cornellians note an overall sense of excitement, though some remain concerned about a possible campus closure if COVID cases spike.
Following an academic year filled with Zoom classes, virtual social events and intense COVID restrictions, the Class of 2024 and the Class of 2025 have gotten a taste of their first relatively-normal collegiate year –– an experience that has posed some unexpected challenges.
If you choose to ignore the headphone request, walking to class lets you see how beautiful and gorgeous our home really is. Seeing people sled down the slope past you as you huff and puff up the Slope. Watching the line for Okenshields stretch outside of Willard Straight Hall. Sharing a wave and a smile with someone you think you know but you might not and oh well they’ve already passed me.
That sweaty August day marked the beginning of a most unprecedented freshmen year; a year full of Q-tip COVID tests, zoom classes, mask wearing and an unfettered hatred for the word unprecedented. New codes of conduct and behavioral contracts created what was deemed the “new normal” which fostered the creation of many new habits among the student body. For many students the walk to class no longer existed. Some replaced it by rolling out of bed, some by listening to class in bed, others by creating a walk of their own whether that be to their favorite study spot or to a building where the echoes of everyone’s zoom conversations bounced off the walls, an amalgamation of different subject matters that enlivened our senses.
The shift to in-person classes is great for many reasons, but there are downsides. While I enjoy being around people, engrossed in the joys of face-to-face interaction, it’s still overwhelming. We went from a year of complete isolation, to somewhat being back, to now returning to “normal”. I totally forgot how to interact with humans, and I’m hoping I’m not the only one.
“The part of my brain that indulged in the isolation is constantly at odds with my own worries about leaving Cornell without a close group of friends. In-person classes were supposed to be the shot of adrenaline that my social life needed, but the reality is turning out to be something different. Everyone’s talking about how great it is to be back on campus, but for plenty of sophomores, there’s not much to come back to.”
With President Martha Pollack’s announcement on the possibility of in-person classes next semester, professors are deciding what they might implement from their time online into the new semester.
Freshman year me, waking up for an 8:40 a.m. physics class in single digit temperatures, would be envious of my online semester. The thought of sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with classmates in hard seats, shoveling through backpack pockets for a pencil, while sniffles and coughs ripple across the room, seems like punishment compared to class from my bedroom.
With online classes, missing a lecture is not a problem if they’re all recorded. You don’t have to guess someone’s name. No need to speak up if you can just type. Running between classes becomes opening a new tab.
This semester, many professors are eager to be back in the physical classroom.