Hey everyone, just chiming in with a current student’s perspective. Right now, it seems most of my friends, who are mainly upperclassmen, are overall still worried about which classes will be online or not and, obviously, how the dining plan situation will go. I know @trf215 posted the FAQs, which I’ve looked over, and right now, I’ll likely opt for the dining plan refund. I remember how long the lines were at Turner this past year, usually avoided it, even during the non-peak times that VT suggested we should go during. With new social distancing measures combined with a reduced dining staff, I can definitely see why this decision was made. I actually have a friend who stayed in Blacksburg for the rest of the semester and remembers waiting close to two hours to pick-up his food and it was barely the full order. Obviously this was back during the huge, unprecedented shift that took place to help stop the spread, but I’d personally rather not take my chances and just get the refund, rather than standing in a line that will likely end up wrapping around the building just to spend the remaining money in my meal plan, especially since the decision is due so soon.
In terms of classes, Tech has made it pretty clear that students will have to wait until mid-July to see what classes will be taught online, and most likely will, and that not all classes will have a remote option. Right now, classroom priority seems to be going towards lab classes that would be difficult to do online, research, and class sizes of less than 50 people. As a result, I think it’s pretty safe to say most freshmen will be taking a majority of their classes online next semester. Which just leaves the question of whether or not certain classes will be essentially self-paced, where a professor uploads pre-made PowerPoints and lectures and it’s up to the student, or if Zoom lectures will make a reappearance.
In terms of the usual extracurriculars, Tech is encouraging online meetings for clubs and activities, and, according to their Instagram Q&A, are still working on how the upcoming football season will look. Tech has said that delaying the season’s start is on the table if practices cannot begin in July due to virus concerns. The university has said multiple things about how it plans to utilize Lane Stadium, but in my opinion, it’s look like some pretty self-explanatory safety measures will be taken if they do decide on how to open Lane. I would also assume that Center Street will definitely be a thing of the past until we enter the re-opening phase that allows for that large of a gathering.
Anyway, these are just my thoughts from what I’ve seen so far. It will definitely be interesting to see how this semester plays out now with social distancing measures. I’m also worried for my international friends who are pretty concerned about the new semester layout, flights, etc and there has been talks from multiple people I know about wanted to take a semester off, which I definitely understand. I have seen two articles on the topic of Blacksburg’s economy and the campus’s new measures and there are some pretty concerned comments in the comments section as well. Apparently, close to half of Blacksburg’s economy is fueled by students, so it definitely makes sense why they are not doing another remote semester. I’ll link them here for anyone who hasn’t seen them: https://www.wsj.com/articles/graduations-campus-classes-canceled-by-coronavirus-shock-college-town-economy-11589707800
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/college-coronavirus-fall-campus-open/2020/06/10/f1537346-ab19-11ea-94d2-d7bc43b26bf9_story.html
Don’t hesitate to correct me if anything I was was incorrect.