By Genesis Lemus//
Hood College prepares for a normal fall semester as vaccines continue to roll out and COVID regulations loosen up. Hood’s faculty and students are looking forward to having a normal fall semester free of all COVID-19 restrictions.
This past year, students have struggled with managing virtual classes and the Hood community is very excited to hear about the plans for next semester. Hood’s faculty has already begun to implement plans and new changes for the semester, starting with diminishing virtual learning.
In an email sent by President Andrea Chapdelaine, she said “The College is planning for an in-person experience for all undergraduate classes. Graduate classes will also be predominately in-person, with some existing online and hybrid course options.”
“I’m ready to get back into a normal classroom setting. Learning over Zoom has not been the easiest,” sophomore Lydia Schoonover said.
Students have also been wondering if the social distancing and the “exit only” and “entrance only” stickers would be removed from the doors. Provost Debbie Ricker said that it would all depend on the CDC guidelines that get placed in August.
“For now, they remain in place and we will continue to monitor updates throughout the summer,” Ricker said.
A lot of the changes on the Hood campus will depend on the CDC and what the COVID emergency response team thinks would be best for students. As far as residence halls go, they will be back up and running to full capacity and students will be required to live on campus if they are full-time students, according to Chapdelaine.
Other Hood College services are also going to try their best to make the fall semester as normal as possible, including Hood’s dining. Currently, there are many changes that they had to implement in order to keep up with the CDC standards. For next semester, John Bragel, director of dining services, hopes that everything is COVID free in the dining hall.what does this mean?
“Our hope is to allow students to have a normal dining experience by removing the plexi glass, having a full salad and pasta bar, and being able to serve yourself again,” Bragel said.
Financially this semester, the dining hall also had way more expenses that they had to make due to COVID safety. Such as, spending more on paper plates, cutlery sets, sauce packets, to-go containers, gloves and sanitizers.
As a big believer in sustainability, Bragel hopes to go back to the green to-go container system that was used pre-COVID.
For those who aren’t familiar with the system, it would include you spending a one-time $5 fee for a reusable food container, and every time you go to the dining hall, you would return your used one and get a new clean one. At the end of the semester, when you are done using it, you get your $5 back.
For the remainder of this semester, there will be one Hood tradition that the dining hall did not want to let COVID ruin. The Annual Crab Fest will still be happening and will take place on May 14.
“We will finalize our fall protocols later this summer as we better understand the trajectory of the virus. This includes mask and social distancing requirements, surveillance testing and quarantine/isolation procedures,” Chapdelaine said.
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