New year, fresh start

Vaxxed, masked and hopeful

With precautions, CWRU welcomed students back to a live college experience this fall.

The university required students to be vaccinated against Covid-19 this fall and nearly all complied. The spirit of cooperation extended to staff and faculty, 95 percent of whom reported taking the vaccine. With that, Case Western Reserve University started the school year with live classes, full dorms, busy dining halls and cautious optimism.

“I’m very confident that campus is safe, that it’s a safe place to be,” Sara Lee, MD, the executive director of University Health and Counseling Services, said in a Zoom presentation to staff and faculty.

Still, CWRU is continuing many of the health protocals enforced last year, including masking indoors and social distancing everywhere. In addition, the university mandated weekly Covid testing the first three weeks of school. More precautions and restrictions could be coming, depending on what occurs on and off campus.

Like universities around the nation, CWRU struggled with how to maintain a safe environment in the face of a lingering pandemic and the emergence of the highly contagious Delta variant, which often targets younger people. Over the summer, administrators employed games and cash prizes to coax students to seek vaccinations. But by mid-July, only 73 percent had taken a shot.

“We got stuck,” new university President Eric Kaler, PhD, told National Public Radio. “It was clear that additional incentives were probably not going to be effective in moving us to the 95-plus percent level that we think is necessary.”

His administration decided to require vaccination, and Kaler says that mandate helped increase the vaccinated rate to 98 percent of students on campus.

The university is requiring staff and faculty, with few exceptions, to be vaccinated as a condition of employment. That requirement extends to campus visitors, including alumni returning for Homecoming events in October.

For their part, students appear ready to bear inconveniences to preserve semi-normal college life. Last fall, only a portion of students were welcomed back to a lonelier experience. Dining was grab-and-go and gatherings were severely restricted or cancelled.

“People are just really excited to be back on campus,” said Cooper Reif, a fourth-year mechanical engineering major from Chicago and the speaker of the General Assembly of Undergraduate Student Government. “There’s much more excitement than any resentment toward the restrictions. It’s just great to see other people, to be doing social things in person.”

CWRU welcomed about 1,650 first years and transfer student this fall, probably the largest class in university history, said Rick Bischoff, the vice president for enrollment management. The pandemic helped to shape a different freshman class. International enrollment dropped sharply, by 25 percent, and less than 14 percent of first years hail from abroad. The university was aiming for 20 percent. As CWRU went “test optional,” the number of applications rose, as did standardized test scores. Applicants tended to submit high SAT and ACT scores or none at all.

Kaler addressed the new students in the Veale Athletic Center August 16, shortly after they had said goodbye to their parents. He told them that he was, like each of them, new to CWRU.

“You’re here to learn how to impact the world,” he said. “I am thrilled to be part of this university and I’m confident you will be, too.”