In light of rapid changes as the University of Oregon and the world face the COVID-19 coronavirus, the Emerald talked to students, staff and other community members about how they’re responding.
Related: “Keep calm and wash your hands: Campus reacts to COVID-19”
Andy Zhou, a second-year student from Shanghai, China, and the president of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, said CSSA offered a survey for its students about COVID-19 three weeks ago and the most common concern was a “lack of [face] masks.”
Harper Fann, a third-year student from Zhengzhou, China, and the International Student Association’s vice president, said ISA canceled all its weekly “Coffee Hour” meetings and activities indefinitely.
“I feel like this is long overdue,” Fann said of UO President Michael Schill’s announcement about changes coming to campus. “I feel like we should have taken the action sooner rather than later.”
Regarding the university’s decision to ban in-person finals for winter term, Fann said, “I do agree that it is important to, you know, to not be in a crowd and not — maybe spend less time in public just in case things would spread. I think this is a reasonable action to take.”
Ian Sherman, a third-year physics student, said he thinks online classes will impact his learning experience.
“I’m currently in physics and calculus both, which are classes that don’t work particularly well online, so I’m anticipating that these cancellations will dramatically change the way in which the classes are structured,” Sherman said. “Particularly in the way students are anticipated to learn the material.”
For her theatre production class, which focuses on makeup and costumes, associate professor Jeanette deJong had to modify the final, which was to apply makeup during an in-class period.
Instead, she gave her students a few options. Either they could submit the project that they had done during their practice session in class during the week before, and only get a maximum grade of 80%. Or they could work on the project during their own time and email photos, something that, deJong said, students have already been doing as a part of assignments.
“The big difference is now, instead of doing it in person, they will do it at home,” deJong, who has worked in the theatre department for five years, said. “Since we had an 8 a.m. final, in some cases, they’re pretty happy, because I’m not making them do it at 8 a.m.”
Anthony Intraversato, a first-year student living in Walton Hall, said he is upset that he has to move back home.
“I’m just not really looking forward to living at home,” Intraversato said. “I like living here and like going to classes here, so I’d much rather do that, and I think it’s kind of an overreaction but I get why they’re doing it. It makes complete sense.”
Zulu Zhang, a second-year student studying art and political science, said her art studio classes are going to be difficult to take online.
“I am a double major in [political science] and my favorite thing about [political science] is talking to other students,” she said. “I was really excited for my ‘political power, influential power’ class that I was taking, but I might drop it because I don’t really want to just write papers. I want to talk.”
The University of Oregon campus stands empty after all finals become online due to the spread of the coronavirus. (Maddie Knight/Emerald)