A bustling college campus now left deserted shows the remnants of how we will remember the Coronavirus pandemic that affected our lives forever.
No students racing to get to class. No laughter echoing through the halls. No study rooms packed to the brim with students cramming for an upcoming exam. The last year has changed everything in ways we never could have imagined, and the effects are plastered upon the halls of ASU’s downtown campus.
On a Monday night last school year, the First Amendment Forum located in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication building was jam-packed with fervent Journalism students awaiting a Must See Monday speaker event.
A year later, a Monday evening in the Cronkite building looks much different. Empty chairs, empty tables and no journalism professional standing at the podium waiting to share their work experience with future journalists. Now, this event is held virtually through Zoom much like many other ASU classes. Journalism Professor, Patricio Espinoza recounts the benefits these virtual classes hold in shaping education.
“It has opened the doors to new and innovative technology,” he says. And the reasoning is clear when examining how virtual classes and events allow ASU students located anywhere in the world the ability to access these resources. It is unknown what will become of the dependence schools have on Zoom and other online software systems once the pandemic comes to an end.
Although we have been able to see the possibilities that exist with technology, the social lives of students at ASU have changed drastically within the last year.
ASU junior, Sam Schnoes, says that the pandemic has had a limiting effect on herself and her friends. As they leave their childhood behind and venture into the glorious years of their twenties, they feel guilty about going out or traveling. This inability to go outside has affected their mental health, much like many other college students who are unable to enjoy the college experience.
Another ASU junior, McKenzie Allen-Charmley, talks of how the pandemic has created “a lack of unity and communication” between her teachers and fellow students.
She also ponders, like many other college students, how this will affect her career and abilities in the workforce once the pandemic ends.
“Am I gonna have the skills that I’m supposed to know,” Allen-Charmley questions. When hands-on programs have evolved into online exercises, it’s difficult to tell the long term effects current college students will have during that gap of experience and education.
Outdoor dining halls, common areas with chairs spaced 6-feet apart and friends hanging out behind the comforts of their masks is the new reality found at Taylor Place, the sole ASU downtown campus dorm building.
Living in a dorm is usually the peak of the ‘college experience’ as most freshmen can meet new friends and develop a community of people to depend on throughout their education journey. We are seeing this concept evolve as freshmen in the dorms have had to find new ways to enjoy their college experience as safely as possible.
Vaughan Jones, an ASU senior and resident college student leader, says there is a strong disconnect between between students and dorm leaders this year in comparison to the bond he felt with his CA and RCSL during his freshman year.
“It’s really hard to get students to want to come to virtual events, so it’s much more difficult to engage them,” he says about how a virtual lifestyle has tainted the ability to bond in the dorms.
He did not sign up to be an RCSL this year to enforce strict restrictions, but with the hope to make everyone’s freshman year the best it can be. He says that, “it seems like most of the students are making the best out of a bad situation” which is the greatest thing we can wish for during this unforeseen part of everyone’s lives.
Contact the reporter at emwillar@asu.edu.
