Students have begun to return to campus in a reduced capacity, and more students are expected to return next semester following a new vaccine mandate that says students must be fully vaccinated by Oct. 15 to register for on-campus classes for Spring 2022.
Although these are great steps to return to normalcy, they most definitely should have come sooner.
Delta College should have made these decisions and actually implemented them before the start of the Fall 2021 term.
The consensus among students around campus is that they’re glad to be back.
Brian Lek, a first-year student at Delta says they’re excited to be back because there are “more opportunities” on campus, such as sports, clubs, and other on-campus events.
Paulina Munoz, a 15-year-old dual enrollment student said she’s happy to be back, especially since “it doesn’t seem like anyone is getting sick.”
Students have also shown their willingness to comply with Covid regulations, including completing daily screeners (either on paper or digitally through the RAVE Guardian app), especially if it means they get to stay on campus.
Many students feel that the school is doing a good job of keeping students safe on campus through the use of the RAVE app and providing safety presentations for the students.
Although the flexibility of asynchronous online classes is very beneficial for some students, for others it simply doesn’t work well. There are many online students at Delta College who said it is the right time to come back to campus and envy those who have the opportunity to be back in person.
“As long as people are respectful of Covid protocols and restrictions I think it’s fine,” said Raevyn Kaigler, a first-year student.
Students seem to agree that if everyone follows protocols we should be able to return to campus.
So if the majority of students agree and understand, why did it take so long for the college itself to make any decisions?
If Delta College had acted sooner, students like Kayla Bates, a student in her last semester here, would be able to have on-campus classes again and be “able to learn in that type of environment.”
The rise of the Delta variant assuredly had something to do with the college being hesitant to make a decision, but these decisions should have been made before the rise of the variant.
If Delta College had implemented a vaccine mandate, more people would be vaccinated and less susceptible to the virus overall. The vaccine didn’t get mandated until late June initially, with the board then reversing the direction the following meeting, only to come back and approve the mandate in mid-August.
The way Delta College has handled the pandemic thus far has been slightly subpar, but it seems the college is finally starting to make better and quicker decisions.
