As many college campuses across the country plan big fall reopenings, students have mixed feelings about returning back to in-person school.
After more than a year away from college campus and resorting to remote and online learning, coming back will be a huge change for many people. For many students, it may be their first time on campus.
This COVID-19 pandemic was not easy for many people. Some students may have lost family members, lost their jobs, lost homes or watched their parents lose their jobs. Some have moved out of state, experienced depression and grief from being apart from family or friends, as well as experienced constant stress over the ever-changing COVID-19 scene on a daily basis.
Due to these drastic life-changing events, college campuses will have to work on implementing more mental health services and activities for students. Life will still not be completely “normal” when returning to campus and this is what many college students fear.
Students’ mixed feelings about returning may have stemmed from the uncertainty of how things will run in this new post-COVID environment. Some students have grown accustomed to remote learning and prefer it to in-person classes. Others may have lacked resources to be successful during this time and are eager to return to continue their college pathway.
Those who have excelled in online learning are the ones who are capable and willing to spend time learning and researching the material on their own. These are the students who have been too busy to socialize much anyway and prefer to get through school alone. These types of students have been apprehensive to return to campus as the school will no longer be on “their time.”
The majority of students who are excited to return to campus are eager for several reasons, the main one being the social factor. “I haven’t met anyone new in over a year,” a Las Positas student said. It is difficult to communicate with classmates via Zoom and returning to campus will increase that social factor.
Another reason is some people simply do not thrive in a virtual learning environment or teaching themselves the material. Some need a classroom to be able to focus and concentrate and have found difficulty having to move into a “school mode” in their own house.
The last major factor for excitement in returning is because some students simply didn’t have the resources to be successful in a remote environment. Some might have had to take this entire time off from school and fall behind just because they did not have the capabilities to be able to set up a classroom setting for themselves at home.
Regardless of the reason, many students have mixed feelings about returning back to in-person learning. College campuses like Las Positas will have to work on the services they provide in the fall to better help students get accustomed to being back on campus.
Renae Machuca is a staff writer for The Express. Follow her @renaeextra.
