It has been six months since America shut down; six months since most colleges announced the closure of in-person courses and activities to a more remote online learning option. Within these months, people have been socially distanced, quarantined and even covered in masks, yet the future of this pandemic looks as grim as what has been experienced so far.
For the college students around the US, the questions of when this will all be over is of high importance. When will the social distancing and early closures of businesses be lifted? When will the expensive in-person courses be allowed to resume so students can obtain the quality of class they are paying for? While each college will provide different answers throughout the next few months, Ohio University will offer an answer many people will not appreciate; courses will stay online in the spring.
Just a week ago, Ohio University’s President Nellis decided to announce that classes will remain online for a majority of the undergraduate students; 31% will be allowed to return during phase two, but only a fraction will have in-person courses. This decision came a day after (Sept. 8th) Ohio announced they had 778 new Coronavirus cases and 17 new deaths.
Within the two weeks prior to this decision, Ohio had recorded 15,830 cases and 301 deaths, which is 11% and 6.6% of the total numbers in Ohio, respectively. Both of these numbers are on pace to stay the same through the two weeks following Nellis’ announcement. More troubling is that while the new cases and deaths tend to fluctuate daily, weekly numbers have been steady for months, rather than on a decline, which can be used to argue that simply social distancing and mask wearing is not effective, but I digress.
President Nellis’ proclamation that the majority of students will stay online for fall semester also is a double-edged sword, as he proves that if Ohio University is staying online in the face of unwavering Coronavirus numbers, then unless they take a sharp decline, nothing will change academically for the spring.
See, with this action, OU has created an enemy with the idea of precedent. They have set the precedent that if coronavirus is still ravaging and infecting Ohioans at a heavy rate, then they will make their programs online. However, by doing so, they have admitted that the rate of infections and deaths needed to shut down campus is a rate which will be steady and, unless an unlikely vaccine emerges, will still be present come spring semester.
For if the rate of infections and deaths are the same four months from now, then Nellis and Ohio University will be stuck in a predicament. They will be forced to either stick to the precedent they set with the same numbers staring them down, or they will have to admit that they overreacted to the situation and that they were wrong for shutting campus completely down. Neither situation is ideal for the image of the university, but they can’t decide that the outbreak is still bad and the decision made for fall semester was right, then go ahead and open the university in the spring if the pandemic situation is the same.
It may seem that all this arguing is hearsay and that Ohio University will go in-person for the spring (personally I hope it does), but aside from my opinion, there likely are already talks inside the university about continuing online courses throughout the spring semester. Regardless, the anxiety that this online reality will continue is real amongst the student population.
For now, Ohioans must wait as the numbers keep rising, praying they will lower so Ohio University isn’t forced to accept their own precedent and move spring courses online again.
Brandon Bowers is a senior studying English Pre-Law at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. What are your thoughts? Tell Brandon by tweeting him at @UnabashedlyBMB.
