With LSU’s first home game just weeks away but COVID surging throughout the state, some students are questioning whether they’ll have a normal semester where they can enjoy the true college experience.
For most sophomores, this is likely their first week attending fully in-person classes at LSU.
While the pandemic waned in the spring and early summer, a fourth wave struck just in time for the fall semester, ramping up weeks before it began.
LSU Student Body President Javin Bowman and Vice President Abbie Grace Milligan have been working with administrators to try and protect students’ experiences at the university.
Despite COVID lingering around, the university is operating close to normal, according to Bowman.
“We’re encouraging our students to always wear their masks inside public spaces, especially when others are close by,” Bowman said. “We’re also asking students to get vaccinated.”
Like Bowman, Milligan said she wants to see as normal of a semester as possible, and she’s working with administrators to make sure that students can remain in the classroom.
“We’ve been working with administration because there’s such a weird balance right now of needing to keep everybody safe but also really making sure that students get the college experience that they’re paying for and that they deserve,” Milligan said.
But it’s not just the students that are concerned; faculty are as well.
Some professors have expressed frustration with the university over having to teach in full capacity classrooms.
Milligan said some professors have tried different loopholes, like not enforcing in-person attendance or allowing students to check in via Zoom. Some professors are even encouraging students to not attend class, as worries about the Delta variant’s easy transmission persist.
“I’m not sure how the administration is going to respond within the next few weeks,” Milligan said. “But I know that it’s their intent to give students as normal an experience as possible. That includes being in the classroom, going to class, having mandatory attendance and all things like that.”
Bowman said that the best way to lead the LSU community out of this pandemic was by encouraging vaccines and mask-wearing until immunity is reached.
“This semester might look a little different,” Bowman said. “You might have a mask on, you might have to show your vaccination proof or you might have to prove that you have a negative COVID test but that is what is necessary for us to be as normal as possible and be as safe as possible.”
For himself, Bowman said the thing he misses the most is being able to see his friends’ faces.
During his time working for student government, he has gone without ever seeing some of his colleagues’ faces.
“Some people, I have not seen their faces,” Bowman said. “I’ve worked with them for an entire year in student government and have no idea what they look like under their mask.”
With many eager students seeking a sense of normalcy once again, full classrooms reignite that hope.
“I know that when I did school online I didn’t really learn anything and I definitely didn’t do my best and I definitely think that every student at LSU deserves to have [the in-person] experience just because I think learning in person is a much better option,” Milligan said.
