The University of Kentucky and COVID: A Student's Observation 8/28/2020

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 breakout, I never pictured myself being able to go back to school in-person. Especially when the second wave hit in the summer, I thought school would have been fully-online for sure. But, when the University announced we were going to return to campus, I was honestly shocked. Bringing 30,000+ students from all around the country, even the world, to one small campus in the middle of a global pandemic did not seem possible to me. I thought for sure we would be sent home just days after arriving, especially because other universities around the country were shutting down left and right. But one thing surprised me about UK: how much the students care. Every day I walk around campus and I very rarely will see anyone without their mask on. Students are routinely practicing the daily 4.0, which includes wearing a mask, washing your hands, practicing physical distancing, and completing your daily screening. But the students are not just doing this because they are being told to, they are doing this because they want to stay on campus as long as possible.

With all of that being said, the virus does not care how much we want to stay here, all it cares about is doing its job: spreading from person to person. The spread is inevitable on a campus with 30,000+ students and while I feel as if UK has done a very good job of controlling and slowing the spread, college kids are always going to be college kids. Were going to be tempted to gather in larger crowds or "forget" to put on our mask. And while it may not be everyone, one small group can ruin it for the others. That is why I think UK will have to switch all classes to be fully-online before the end of the semester. It is almost impossible to keep a virus of this magnitude controlled in such a densely populated area. Also, many of my professors seem to already be preparing for the classes to go fully-online. For example, my college algebra class was originally placed as a hybrid course but my professor has since decided to run the course via zoom for now so that we are better prepared to switch to a full-online semester if needed. This makes me believe that the possibility that UK does not switch to fully-online before the end of the semester is low. 

As much as I want to remain in my few in-person and hybrid classes, I do not want to get my hopes up when we are dealing with such unpredictable times.  I mean who knows what can happen, I surely never thought we would make it this far, let alone be able to come to campus. But, as far as I can tell, everyone here at The University of Kentucky is trying their hardest to stay safe and stay here for as long as possible.