Two weeks into the new semester, the looming Omicron variant has some students and faculty feeling left in the dark, and they want answers.
In-person learning begins on Feb. 7, and issues ranging from vague emails to confusing testing requirements have many feeling as though they are navigating through uncharted territory. Some students said Student Health Services are challenging to reach.
In the early months of the pandemic Student Health Services switched to operating completely online, communicating through email. The lack of an in-person, on-campus space has garnered mixed responses from students.
“I think it needs to be in person,” Brooke Goldstein, a second-year Parsons student said. “It’s a health service. And if something is going on here, you need somebody here.”
Email initiates an automatic response alerting students to the current influx of emails being sent to Student Health Services, claiming an employee will be in contact as soon as possible.
“I think for the students that are living on campus, such as myself, it would be nice to see Student Health Services [on campus] because it helps get quicker responses,” Luca Caracciolo, a second-year Parsons student said.
Over the past few months Student Health Services has released emails detailing plans for the return to campus. Boosters became required and, in a recent email from the provost office released Jan. 7, titled “Update on the Start of Spring Semester,” the announcement was made that the first two weeks would be virtual.
“I feel like a decision like this, which involves people’s safety and ultimately their lives, there should be more input from the people that are actually going to be in the classrooms,” said music professor Stew Stewart of the decision to hold classes online for the first two weeks of the term.
Some also feel as though the shift to online learning creates uniques challenges for some students and faculty.
“Online learning assumes that everyone has access to technology and that everyone has access to a safe place to learn that’s individual and private,” Lecturer Ted Kerr said.
The email that outlined the entry testing plan left students puzzled by the specifics.
“I think they have been trying their best, like sending out these emails with all this information, but something always gets lost in translation. So I don’t know what exactly could help fix that, but there definitely is a disconnect,” Daphne Sevilla, a first-year Lang student, said.
“I definitely think that the biggest thing [to improve] would be communication” about the testing requirements, second-year Lang student Samuel Meade said.
Multiple students expressed similar frustrations about the haziness of the policies that were being put in place. For most, a couple of emails were not enough to answer questions they might have about the steps The New School is taking to prevent a larger COVID-19 outbreak beyond testing protocols.
However, some students also pointed out that the school has put in some important measures in fighting against any outbreaks.
“I think the school is taking a lot of good measures,” Luca Caracciolo, a second-year Parsons student, said. “I think now we have the PCR tests weekly, which I got into myself, that’s an effective way of keeping things at bay. I think it’s something that the school has been doing right since the start.”
Despite a lack of communication, both students and faculty agree that the required free testing and the regular checking of vaccination status to enter campus spaces are the plans that have been made very clear by Student Health Services and the university as a whole.
Audio by Oz Yangas