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Eric Ott, Graduate Student in the Public History program at Central Connecticut State University
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2020-03-12A Dose of Reality
This one email changed everything. Every student and staff member at Central Connecticut State University received this email from the President of the University, Zulma Toro. In it, she describes the possibility that a student at the university might have been infected with the virus and that she has closed the campus because of the danger. Almost every university student around the country has some sort of email like this and it was one of the most frightening emails we've ever received in our lives. It changed everything. Students were forced to leave campus in two hours and left many of their belongings behind. Those items left in the dorm rooms are now being packed up and moved to storage containers as CT National Guard Troopers and Medical Staff are staying in the empty dorms to support efforts to fight the pandemic. All classes were canceled and shifted to online learning for the rest of the semester. In one quick email students were deprived of relationships with friends and staff and thrust into a world of unknowns. Some students who relied on campus housing and food were left homeless and without basic means to support themselves. All in the space fo two hours. Before this email, you could say Coronavirus was just something in the news that didn't effect our lives, but after this email, we all got a dose of reality. We couldn't live our lives the same way anymore. The ignorance was gone.