TRANSCRIPT
Amidst a worldwide pandemic due to COVID-19, Haskell Indian Nations University has taken their own precautions to protect the local community. In the spring semester of 2020 campus was closed indefinitely in response to the pandemic. Students were discouraged from traveling back to campus as school officials organized a shift to fully online classes. It was not until fall of 2021 that students were allowed to be back on campus.
JACOB CURTIS: The freshmen, the seniors, athletics, and transfer students–they were the only ones allowed on campus. They let us know that two weeks before school started if I remember correctly. So for any of us that were expecting to move on to campus and were planning on that all of a sudden now had to either find a way to get into Lawrence if we were out of state or you know have to cut out another semester.
ALEXANDRA HOLDER: Whenever the pandemic had happened or started I was actually on spring break in Arizona with my friends and so we had to come up and rush back up here and—because it was Kansas was going to say that they were going to close the borders. So it was kind of a scary situation where we had to get back right away.
For the spring 2022 semester there’s a campus-wide vaccination mandate for faculty and students. Faculty have been required to be fully vaccinated since November 2021, while students were required by the end of the Fall 2021 semester. Any student now living on campus is required to be vaccinated.
JAMES BENSON: I do believe it’s important that everyone who can get vaccinated to get vaccinated. The more people that are vaccinated, the quicker we’ll be able to move past this whole business.
DOROTHEA SUMMERS: I don’t think there should be a mandate, especially because of how much we know about the vaccine right now and how much we know about COVID. Since we do have a mandate already, I think that they should take down the restrictions, but the fact that they’re making everybody get a vaccine even if you don’t want to is very frustrating.
JAMES BENSON: I wish they would expand the hybrid classes that are both conducted online and in person. I know that was a problem last semester where only some of the classes were hybrid so some students who couldn’t live in Lawrence couldn’t take some classes.
DOROTHEA SUMMERS: I think that they should stop making people be so far apart and having to do their own education all on their own. I don’t think that’s very helpful for anybody mentally, and which means it’s mentally and physically taxing, so I think in the long run what we think that we’re doing now to help people is actually hurting people in the long run.
The newest variant omnicron has not only caused a spike in cases for the United States, but also in Douglas County according to the CDC and local data. As a precaution to the spike the Haskell administration issued a notice for all classes to be held online for the first three weeks of the semester as they prepare for a possible shift to fully online classes.
KENNEDY MURPHY: I have a little bit of a harder time learning online, but it’s just to keep us safe. So it’s it is a little harder for a lot of students but it’s to keep us safe.
JACOB CURTIS: I’ve always been of the idea that I learn in-person. I learn by watching other people and seeing how they do things and kind of following that same path. So when I go online and I’m basically being talked at by a very grainy screen for about two to four hours a day, I’m not really learning much.
KENNEDY MURPHY: They give out a lot of sanitizing products. They also set out food in the common area–water for sanitation. They have wipes, they have the lysol spray, they have masks, and they also give out toilet paper at times.
JAMES BENSON: I know they’ve provided financial help to students who also will have to seek housing off-campus, and then of course you know accommodations given by individual professors–you know being a little bit more forgiving to students–you know helping them through their work and then of course our tutoring opportunities–that sort of thing.
In difficult times such as these it is important to remember that the reason for lockdowns and mandates is for the safety of communities. Despite the shortcomings, in terms of communication and execution with prior Haskell administration, Haskell officials now have the experience and means to prioritize the mental and spiritual well-being of students. Alexandra Holder was able to give hopeful advice to continuing and future students
ALEXANDRA HOLDER: I say just hang in there because Haskell is a great school and there’s a lot of good opportunities here. And hopefully everyone can come back again soon, because you know we all miss everyone, and it’s not the same with everyone gone. So just hang in there, and hopefully by the fall, we can be back.
