With campuses being closed throughout the country for the rest of the semester, college students have had to adapt on the fly and make arrangements to keep up with their schoolwork.
Not being able to attend class is a big deal for Southern Miss senior Jordan Foxworth, who is an accounting major in business school, which involves a lot of collaboration among students.
“Not seeing them now and being able to work alongside them doing the group projects we had going beforehand is weird,” he said.
All of the group projects were cut, and assignments have now been moved online. Professors have also started recording online lectures and are giving more assignments directly out of their course books.
The former West Marion student was going to graduate from USM in May, but he said a lot of the speculation has been the commencement being moved back to June or July. Foxworth said if it were canceled altogether, it would be a big letdown.
“Our graduation is separated out into colleges, and the people I’d be walking with are the same people I’ve had classes with the last four years. It would be a disappointment not to see those lifelong friends one last time as we walk across that stage,” he said. “Also my parents have helped finance some of my college, and for them not to be able to watch me walk across that stage and get a photo would be very disappointing.”
Haley Reeder, a sophomore at Pearl River Community College who attended West Marion, said the closure of campus has allowed her to spend more time with her family and catch up on schoolwork. While most of her classes have moved online, Reeder said some of her teachers have given students free 100s on assignments.
Reeder was scheduled to be the first person in her family to get a degree this May, but at this point Pearl River hasn’t made an announcement about its commencement ceremony. She said if it is canceled she would likely have her own graduation party to celebrate the accomplishment.
Harrison Foxworth, a freshman at Ole Miss who was valedictorian at Columbia High School last year, said so far it hasn’t been very stressful. Some of his classes are meeting on Zoom about once a week. All of his classes are discussion based because he’s a public policy major so rather than discussions the classes have been geared more toward essays and discussion boards online.
Foxworth said he was pretty bummed out when the campus was closed for the semester, but that he gets why the decision was made.
“There’s a bigger picture. People are dying, and I definitely understand that if everyone came back from spring break it would’ve spread like wildfire,” he said.
Southwest Mississippi Community College is also using Zoom for lectures and for students and professors to communicate, according to freshman Kaitlyn Bradford. She said what’s really been beneficial is having assignments to work on through their eBooks.
“In my human growth and development class we’ve been doing assignments on each chapter of notes to turn in, and some of it’s open book and some they can make it to where it’s not. But we have daily assignments that way so that we can still get our attendance mark,” she said.
Southwest is even offering online tutoring for students who need help, and Bradford said her teachers have been really good about emailing her back if she has a question, usually within an hour. The Summit college is also offering hotspots around campus for students who don’t have internet access, while Bradford has been using her church’s Wi-Fi.
“They’re making this process as easy for us as they can,” she said. “It makes me feel like I’m a priority, which makes me feel good about the school that I chose.”
The former Trojan likes being able to work at her own pace with courses now being online, but she’d rather be in class.
“I’m a people person so having to be at home and not being able to interact socially is kind of a down for me,” she said. “I can work ahead if I want, which I like because some days I feel a lot more productive than other days so I’m able to work at my own pace.”
Bradford is also a cheerleader at Southwest, and the cheer team was preparing for its competitive season when the campus was closed. The cheer competition was scheduled for April 8 through April 12 but had to be canceled. It was also tryout season for next year’s cheer squad, but cheerleaders are now having to virtually try out.
“It’s hard for cheer to do a virtual try out because unlike other sports — in football you can send in your highlights from high school and the same thing with baseball and softball — but in cheer your stunting skills are going to be based off whoever you’re stunting with,” she explained. “It’s hard to try out that way, especially when it’s a contact, in-person sport.”
She added it’s also hard to keep their skills up because there isn’t a safe place for them to practice or work out, and it’s hard for them to have spotters.
Treves Trahan, a senior at Southern Miss who is expected to graduate in December, is majoring in a technology field where most of his assignments were already online so the only major difference for him is no longer going to class.
Trahan said he would rather be in class than having to do all of his work from home.
“I actually like class because I like being face to face with my teacher to ask questions and receive guidance if I need a particular answer for something,” he said.
He added exams are different as well. With no professor to watch students take tests, teachers have put timers on assesments to discourage cheating.
