A mask creates a cozy little nook to hide from everyone else, just a bit. Little insecurities like this get to be kept secret, just between you and your mask.
More than 1,500 Miami students have tested positive for COVID-19 since Aug. 17 — nearly 10% of the total student population. As infections continue to rise, many students have joked about getting infected intentionally in the name of herd immunity. But for the health professionals informing Miami’s response to the pandemic, this trend has dangerous implications for the Oxford community.
More than two weeks after moving onto campus, some Miami University students have yet to receive the result of the first COVID-19 test they took before moving into their dorms.
From the outside, Maple Street Commons looks just like it has in previous years. One step inside the front door, however, and that notion is quickly dispelled. In order to comply with COVID-19 protocols and ensure students stay safe when getting their grub, Miami’s dining halls look drastically different than they have in previous years.
The verdant grounds and broad walkways of Miami are no longer desolate when the clock reads 11:40 a.m. or 1:15 p.m. However, the ever-present issue of COVID-19 and the fact that some students opted to stay remote for the semester have led to some interesting changes in how professors are conducting classes this fall.
Miami will follow the lead of universities like Ohio State in the decision to eliminate the traditional, week-long spring break and replace it with five “reading days” throughout the 2021 spring semester.
On Tuesday, Miami’s Vice President for Student Affairs, Jayne Brownell, announced a new coronavirus monitoring system for residence halls.
In the hallways of their dorms, students pass each other in their masks. They try to smile, to make a friend, but are unable to tell who they are passing. The girl from 204? Someone down the hall? They ask themselves one question: Can I make friends and stay safe?
With a majority of students now living in Oxford, students and professors alike have had to adapt to a new classroom environment. Even though the university’s active case number has seen a steady decline in the past two weeks, the partial return to classrooms has people worried that trend may be reversed.
The week before classes start each fall, around 250 students dot the football field at Yager Stadium, each on a specific mark. Practicing morning to night, they create a wall of sound that fills campus. Once school starts, they are the life of football games and beacons of school spirit. This year, the stadium is silent.
Some students spend months acquiring different items for their dorm room, with everything from throw pillows to string lights making the cut. Other students slap a couple posters on the wall and call it a day.
Online classes to online activities to online events. With this being the life of a college student for the past six months, many were excited to branch out and do something outside of a computer screen. On Sept. 24, Miami Activities & Programming (MAP) hosted its first face-to-face event of the semester, “Plant Your Roots,” where free succulent plants were available for students to pick up near the Armstrong Student Center.
Farmers markets have a long history of providing fresh food, art and a center for communities to come together. The Oxford farmers market is no different, bringing the community together for decades, a tradition that has continued despite challenges faced during a pandemic.
As I walk up the long stretch of stairs to the Recreation Center (Rec), a staff member in a red t-shirt sprays and wipes the railings. Inside, there is caution tape where water fountains used to be. Almost every machine is being used and students on benches stay inside a barrier of yellow tape. Some students walk to the next area with a rag and spray bottle in hand. Surprisingly, it is not a complete ghost town.
The usually full social calendars for the members of the Miami Greek community are virtually empty with pandemic safety precautions limiting gatherings of more than 10 people. With coronavirus continually changing our social world as we know it, Miami Greeks are trying to find as much normalcy as they can during these unprecedented times. Instead of the normal mass gatherings for chapter, weekly chapter meetings are now conducted virtually through a screen.
Since the return of many off-campus students in August, cases of COVID-19 have been growing. As on-campus students begin returning to campus, there are concerns over members of the Miami community properly following guidelines.
Since sending students home in March, Miami University has been planning ways to safely bring students back to campus in the age of COVID-19. But with more than 1,300 cumulative cases a month into the semester, members of the Miami community have raised questions about the university’s response to the pandemic.
Zoom, the video-conferencing application that Miami uses for online learning, was down and undergoing maintenance for nearly four hours on Aug. 24. This Zoom blackout slammed the brakes on schools across the country and introduced students and instructors alike to a new kind of virtual snow day.
Jennifer Bailer, health commissioner for the Butler County Health District, said Oxford is now averaging 25 new COVID cases a day, a decrease from several hundred a day at the end of August.
Miami University will move forward on a $96 million Clinical Health Sciences (CHS) facility, as well as other previously planned construction projects after suspending $176 million worth of construction projects due to COVID-19 in June.