By Kelsey Braun ’22, Staff Writer
On October 20th, St. John Fisher College made an announcement that classes would begin to transition completely online for the remainder of the semester. An email sent to residential students from Residential Life instructed students to leave campus no later than 9 p.m. the following day st.
With less than 24 hours to prepare to leave campus and make plans to move out, many residential students were surprised at how similar the process was in comparison to being sent home in March during the spring semester. In addition to an email, the official St. John Fisher College Instagram page made a post that brought a lot of feedback in the comments from current students, families and alumni.
A typical Instagram post from St. John Fisher college gets very few comments, however on October 20th, the post indicating that Fisher would be moving toward Operation Level 3, got 315 comments and 616 likes. The central voice in the comments is from disappointed students. There are many variables that have made students upset, ranging from being sent home with less than a day notice, classes transitioning to a completely online format and questions about room and board or meal plan refunds.
Among many other long comments expressing their feelings,
Mary Clare Boyle commented:
“How is it logical to send us all home and either quarantine at home (which could be a more highly affected area like NYC) and risk infecting MORE people aka out families OR force out families to put us up in a hotel for 2+ weeks and spend all that money?”’
In addition, Matt Sciandra commented:
“I understand the decision and usually I’d advocate for just online classes for a week or two then see how everything is. However, with most of the cases being in the campus dorms, I doubt the students living in the dorms would just want to stay in their room during that time. It’s an unreasonable expectation because we thrive off communication from others… Just trying to give some perspective here from both sides.”
Residential students are not alone in their disappointment. Going completely online affects everyone, in every major. Katlyn Boland, a junior nursing major, said, “(Going online) made it confusing, especially for nursing majors since some things are online but others have the option to be on campus. Other things are also getting rescheduled, so overall it made it stressful.”
Furthermore, in addition to adding stress, many students find it difficult to focus when classes are not conducted in person. “(Going online) just makes everything so much harder, and I am not a naturally disciplined person so I start doing poorly in school when working from home,” said Molly Conron, a junior education major.
Junior Theresa Campofelice is a commuter student living off campus, and before switching to the online format, she was acclimated to coming into school for her classes. “I think everybody anticipated us going online at some point this semester. I feel like this affects the learning aspect in a bad way because it’s harder to get in contact with professors. If I have a question about a lecture or homework, I will have to stay after on the Zoom,” said Campofelice. “Sometimes it glitches, and that’s even worse because I miss what they are saying. Zoom is a good alternative to make sure we are still learning but it’s not as good as it can be.”
