by Kat Steel, Reporter

Photo courtesy of pexels.com

This year has brought many mixed emotions from the global pandemic. Some schools were very fortunate to allow students to come back to campus this fall, while others had to stay home and do classes remotely. The universities who were able to return to in-person classes, COVID-19 regulations were set in place to ensure students safety while back on campus. While trying to compare schools, I asked my friends on Facebook to share their college experience to compare and contrast it with Aquinas College’s protocols. 

Lauren Mawson, a student at Hope College studying Psychology and Sociology, was able to share her experience with me. Hope College is both online and in person depending on the class and professor. Protocols are similar to Aquinas’ and include social distancing and masks in public areas. However, students are not allowed to have friends from other dorms to visit. Mawson said the pandemic changed her ways of meeting people. While she used to meet  people in the student center, she is now unable to  because of the strict policies made at the school. It made her more sympathetic towards the freshmen because many school traditions were cancelled and there were less opportunities to meet new people.

Madeleine, who just started her freshmen year of college studying biomedical engineering, is attending Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu, Hawaii. She follows the same protocols as the other schools and is luckily in person for her classes. While all of Aquinas’ sports teams are on hold, her schools sports teams are on right now with COVID rules but others are still on hold.er dance team is competing in the spring. 

It is interesting to learn more about how different or similar the college’s rules on COVID 19 are. Although it is still disappointing that some schools are not in person, we are fortunate to be on campus this fall.