YEARS OF SERVING FERRUM COLLEGE
www.ferrum.edu/campus-life/THE-IRON-BLADE/ | October 1, 2020 | Vol. 67, Issue 1
Welcome Back!
By Mary Stoudt Welcome back to campus and classes Panthers! Leaving in March due to the COVID-19 and not returning until late July and August has created the longest break term in history. Along with the beginning of a new school year, new challenges and excitements are also to come. Ferrum College President Dr. David Johns has expressed his excitement about this new school year. “What I’m most looking forward to is getting to see students again, the campus was very quiet the more we got into March,” Johns said. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues through the nation, all U.S. colleges, including Ferrum College, have had to adapt their plans in order to have students safely return to campus. “We started talking pretty seriously in the spring after commencement about students returning to campus,” Johns said. Ferrum College has adopted many policies for students, faculty, and staff to follow during this time. Dean of Students and Title IX Coordinator Nicole Lenez was an integral part of the planning process and implementation of these new policies. “We worked so hard all summer to come up with the new policies, and now that it is week three, it appears they are doing exactly what they are supposed to,” Lenez said, “I think the most important thing to note is that we can’t slack off now that we are comfortable. Students are still enjoying campus and each other and spending time with faculty and staff, and it’s important that we continue to wear masks and stay 6ft apart whenever possible to help us keep our numbers low and stay open.” The most recognizable policy is the requirement of face masks on campus and the rule of social distancing. Another new policy introduced to both Ferrum employees and students is the use of the LiveSafe app to monitor symptoms throughout term one and two. Ferrum has also unveiled their new Stronger Together webpage, where students and their families, faculty, and staff can find resources about keeping the campus safe and clean, as well as regular updates about the number of the COVID-19 cases on campus and those in precautionary isolation. Ferrum has also unveiled specific plans for student-athletes. Athletes have been participating in socially distanced practices and workouts and have been having regular team Zoom calls. “We will begin practices as safely as possible and coaches have been pretty creative,” said Johns, in regards to athletic practices beginning on campus.
Even with the challenge of COVID-19, this school year is in full swing and students have returned to in-person classes for the first time in five months. Despite the COVID-19, Ferrum has completed renovations of several offices including the International Programs’ office, during the time when all students were gone. The most noticeable renovation is in the new Carter Center for Academic Success. This center has been repainted and refurbished with new furniture including tables, chairs, and whiteboards. Additionally, the new center includes a larger testing center for students to utilize.
In addition to the renovations that have occurred, new social distancing activities have been introduced. “Justin Muse [Director of Student Activities] has a new software (Presence) and some fun events (both in-person and virtual) lined up for this semester! He has also used this opportunity to purchase some equipment that will benefit us and the campus in the long run and save us on rental costs (like an inflatable movie screen and projector),” Lenez said, “Muse has also worked really hard to put together some guidelines so that student organizations can begin meeting within the CDC guidelines. We also want to make sure our students are getting outside and the event list Aaron Conover [Director of Norton Outdoor Adventures] put together for the Norton Outdoor Adventure Center is also impressive.” Even with unique ongoing challenges the COVID-19 has added to this school year, Ferrum students have returned to a new normal. New campus updates in regards to the COVID-19 can be accessed on Ferrum’s Stronger Together webpage and via campus mail.
COVID: How Do We Compare?
The COVID-19 is becoming a greatest inconvenience of the year. With thousands of cases popping up everyday, it becomes a scary thought to allow students to go back to school. This anxiety is not there without a reason; instead, multiple schools across the country went completely online after seeing a fast increase in confirmed case. On March 6, 2020, the University of Washington became the first major university to cancel in-person classes. That then led to more than 1,100 other colleges and universities across the nation to shut down their campuses and switch to fully online classes, according to an article by NCSL. The response plans vary from school to school but generally fall into three categories, according to an article by NCSL.One is in-person classes within the social distancing model. Roughly 60% of schools, including Arizona State University and the University of Alabama, planned to use this model. This model will require students to follow social distancing procedures put in place during classes. Another model is the hybrid model or limited student access on campus. About 24% of U.S. colleges planed on using this model, which highlights a combination of online classes and seated classes. An alternative approach is to allow only a small number of students back, like what Princeton and Harvard did. The final model is to make all classes entirely online. About 9% of institutions, along with the entirety of the California State University system, said they would do fully online courses.
By Braden Homsey & Dylan Scoggins-Nelson As more colleges and universities close campuses, more challenges arise. Many students relied on the dorms, dining halls, and work-study programs to help them with shelter, food, and income. As an adjustment to under the pandemic, some campuses have created emergency relief funds, mostly from private donations, to help students with unexpected expenses due to these closures. In the meantime, many campuses refused to lower tuition or refund room and board expenses, despite student-led petitions and lawsuits. According to Education Dive, the State University of New York’s Student Conduct Institute counted more than 100 cases against colleges during the outbread of the COVID. One of the cases is about New York University, which followed a refusal to offer refunds for tuition, with what is seen as a tonedeaf video of the dean dancing to R.E.M’s 1991 single “Losing My Religion”. Due to the outbreak and many campuses offering online-only courses, financial aid has also been affected. The Department of Education has released a guide that adjusts the requirements for some scholarships as well as for GPA requirements. U.S. President Donald Trump also declared that student loan payments and interest would be suspended until December 31, as well as to stop the collection of defaulted loans. Roughly 700,000 undergraduate students receive federal work-study subsidies each year, according to
an article by InsideHigherED. During the COVID, however, many students may find themselves lose these funds. The Department of Education issued a guidance, asking colleges to continue paying the students who would have lost the income, even if they are unable to come to work. Attack from the COVID continues in this new school year. The University of North Carolina (UNC) was one among the many colleges that saw a huge hit, when 134 students contracted COVID in the first week of the fall semester. “UNC had little to no care for its students and instead used COVID as a way to make more money off of its students,” said Lucero Rocha, when she was asked about her feelings about the contingency plan UNC had for its students. In another vein, Ferrum College used the failures of other schools as an example of what to avoid and how to make an effective contingency plan for the health and safety of its staff and students. As of Sept. 30, Ferrum has been able to make through its first six weeks of classes without severe complications and is determined to finish a successful school year. There are currently about 800 Ferrum students on campus, with an addition of 60 other students who work from home amd complete their classes entirely online. A total of 11 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported at Ferrum by Sept. 30. Ferrum College is dedicated to continuing with the success it has achieved thus far and making all way through this school year.