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2021-01-04
Planning to Roll Out the Vaccine at KSU
Kennesaw State University notified faculty and staff on January 4, 2021, that the university would serve as a distribution site for the COVID-19 vaccine to students, faculty, and staff according to CDC guidelines. All employees and affiliates not slated for the first wave, which includes people over age 65 and designated first responders, will fill out a survey on January 14 to indicate their interest in receiving the vaccine and enable them to be added to the vaccination schedule. Although I am only 36 years old, I am teaching in person this semester, and I am eager to get the vaccine. -
11/17/2020
Luis Cortez Oral History, 2020/11/17
Luis "Louie" Cortez is an employee of St. Mary's University and in this quick oral history he gives us an insight into how life changed for him while working through a pandemic. -
2020-11-20
Circulation Changes
COVID-19 brought on many changes to the St. Mary's University campus, including the second floor of the Louis J. Blume Library. These changes included the plexiglass pictured and hand sanitizer for the student workers to use when performing duties. Masks are required at all times in the library and the plexiglass is used as an extra safety precaution for both staff and patrons. Temperatures are taken before being allowed into the library and there is also plexiglass located at that entrance. -
2020-10-06
How acting changes during the age of COVID
This document is a list of requirements and guidelines for the attendance of a an acting workshop I was a part of in October of this year, as a part of a larger project the Drama Department at my university, St. Mary's was and is attempting to create a new and safer theatre experience for the coming semesters. The workshop we attended was, of course, created with the intent for attendees to participate in-person. Despite this, however, as the requirements here show, the fact that that was impossible, or at least very ill-advised, not only wasn't enough to prevent it from happening, it may have helped it in a good number of ways. For a first example, the individuals in charge of the workshop, affiliated with The Tectonic Theatre, were situated in New York, as opposed to my university being located in San Antonio Texas. The fact that the workshop was held virtually actually made it much more realistically approachable as otherwise the distance would have complicated matters considerably, which was taken care of in that way. In the same vein, as the requirements hint at with the items that are required, is that each person who participated was able to use their surroundings, almost exclusively their own homes, which they were of course very familiar with, to great affect for the exercises that were given to them. In fact, despite the initial misgivings that many of us-myself included-initially had, the workshop was able to take place not only just as well as it would have had it been in person, but in my personal opinion, it might have gone even better. All in all, the workshop was a pretty impressive look at overcoming complications from this pandemic and working around them to make the virtual experience lose nothing from an in-person experience. -
2020-08-10T15:06
Work Studies Begin Working Remotely for Fall 2020
When I got the email saying that as a work-study student at St. Mary's University I was going to be able to work from home for the semester I was extremely excited. Before the pandemic, we were only allowed to work in-person while on campus. In March all work-studies were told that they would not be able to work at home, so it was stressful waiting to hear if we were going to be allowed to work. Being able to still work on the projects that we are assigned during this pandemic is a nice escape from reality. -
2020-11
A New Entrance to the Realm of Recreation
The photograph was taken in the AACC at St. Mary's University. Prior to the pandemic visitors would check-in using their ID cards. Now, patrons must create an appointment online and check-in at the only entrance, get their temperature taken, and leave once their hour appointment is up. This may seem like an inconvenience to some but it is a necessary procedure to ensure the spaces on campus are used safely. -
2020-09-28
Dealing with Covid-19 and School
Last semester (spring 2020) was only my second semester in college and as I was already struggling to get a grasp on my school work and manage a social life outside of school and my part time job I had found myself back at home in my childhood bedroom having to teach myself the material. I am now a sophomore at Florida Gulf Coast University. This semester I have only one class in person and we just meet to complete the labs therefore I am basically teaching myself five college level courses. I also have a part time job at PetSmart and as they are pretty flexible since I am in school it is still hard to fully manage my free time to the best of my abilities without wasting any of the time I do have outside of work. I, like probably many others have found the past few months some of the most challenging yet evolving times of my life. Despite the challenges I've encountered over the last 6 months I was very thrilled to be back at home with my parents and my cat that I was very upset to leave to begin with. But, I shouldn’t have been home that long. Us, the students of America, need to be in classrooms learning hands on, we need that time out of the house to prospere, we need those social interactions with teachers and peers. We should not be forced to take classes via a computer. This is America we should have the right to decide whether we want to return to our lives normally, as we should and be in the classroom learning with our teachers in front of us. As we are now in week seven of the fall semester for students in higher level education across America there have been numerous instances of universities closing due to Covid-19 outbreaks and some not even opening back up to give the students a chance. My university has opened with the majority of the classes still being online which has been challenging. Most of the resources they provide to us have either been moved to online formatting or just simply closed which is unfair. Why should we the students who want to succeed in our lives ahead of us be stuck behind computer screens teaching ourselves the material for our coursework? America should be able to handle this pandemic a lot better than it has been to get our students back in the classrooms. -
2020-09-01
Auburn University: 567 Confirmed COVID-19 Cases (August 24-28)
Screenshot shared on a friend's Facebook page. She writes that there were over 700 confirmed cases in the first two weeks of school, and yet the college campus remains open. Arizona State University also remains open, we'll see if rising infection rates change the way administrators cope with a public health crisis.