Time and time again, we have adapted to pandemic life and shown our resilience and creativity. We found new ways to live our life when the old ways became unsafe—and we haven’t stopped innovating since March.
When they closed down indoor dining, we moved the tables outside. When we couldn’t go to the gym, we started jogging around the neighborhood. When the movie theaters shut down, we streamed from the couch and when the bars said, “closing time,” we became cocktail artists for Zoom happy hours.
Much like the governor of Idaho adapts our safety standards to the number of cases found across the state, we have to be open to re-evaluation and change at the university scale too. With more contagious and deadly strains of the virus appearing in our neighbor states, it is time to up the ante on our single-layer cloth masks, infrequent testing and at capacity classrooms.
While these precautions have served to keep our campus open this far without classroom spread, I worry that they are not enough to protect us against new strains.
I admire the University of Idaho’s commitment to staying at least partially in-person. I think there is a lot of value in in-person learning, especially for programs.
I was able to participate in field and lab work opportunities that translated directly into marketable skills for my resume because we were able to be in-person last semester. Even though I was skeptical, I ultimately benefitted from the outcome. Now, I do not want to see campus forced online again because we failed to adjust to new threats.
There is a way for us to keep the campus open and make it to the end of this semester. It will take adjustments and a campus-wide recommitment to the Healthy Vandal Pledge. It will take more frequent testing. It will take double-masking and ditching the bandanas and buffs that we now know are less effective than a multi-layer mask. It will take education and accountability. It will take a full six feet of distance between classroom seats and a penalty-free online option in every course.
Much of our campus population won’t see a vaccine until late April or May at the earliest, we still need to act like the threat is real. It is time to call on the creative innovation that kept us safe during the challenges of the last two semesters and work to keep our in-person community healthy and informed.
I don’t want to spend the weeks before my graduation this May in a Zoom breakout room— want to enjoy the time I have left on this campus. My home away from home. I want to be safe and I want to keep my fellow Vandals safe. We have overcome so much in the past year; I believe we are ready to make the necessary changes now to keep adapting to the new challenges of today.
Beth Hoots can be reached at [email protected]