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Brigid Bergin: I'm Brigid Bergin, in for Tanzina Vega. This is The Takeaway.

Gov. John Carney: Delaware is proud to cast its 32 votes for our favorite son and our next president.

Senator Tom Carper: Our friend, Delaware's Joe Biden.

Senator Carmelo Rios-Santiago: Puerto Rico emite cinco votos para Bernie Sanders y cincuenta y tres votos para Joe Biden.

Marisol Garcia: As an Arizona Latina, I proudly cast our votes, 29 for Bernie Sanders and 51 for our next president, Joe Biden.

Brigid: Last night, during the second night of the Democratic National Convention, Joe Biden officially became the Democratic nominee for president. As politics roll on toward November, the nation reels from COVID-19 with the start of the school year practically upon us. In the coming weeks, millions of students will start their first complete semester of college happening during the pandemic. Uncertainty about the course of COVID-19 in the US has sent colleges and universities scrambling to accommodate the needs of students, faculty, staff, and parents while also following public health recommendations.

In the past few weeks, hundreds of schools have reportedly had to rein in reopening plans. On Monday, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, announced abruptly they would be moving all of its undergraduate classes online after hundreds of its students and dozens of staff tested positive for COVID-19. It's far from the only college seeing spikes in the number of confirmed cases on campus. Yesterday, the University of Notre Dame reported at least 147 cases, and at Oklahoma State University, an entire sorority was put under quarantine after 23 members tested positive.

As virtual classes eclipse in-person instruction at many schools, students will also have to adjust their expectations for campus life this semester and grapple with potentially earning their degree remotely, an unthinkable prospect just months ago. Joining me now to discuss this and more are three college students from across the US. Jon’na Bailey is a junior at the University of Mississippi. Jon’na, thanks for joining us.

Jon’na Bailey: I'm happy to be here. Hello to all the listeners out there.

Brigid: Mara Smith is a senior at the University of Iowa. Mara, glad to have you with us.

Mara Smith: Hello, thank you for having me.

Brigid: Jack McEvoy is a freshman at Bates College, a small liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Jack, welcome to the show.

Jack McEvoy: Hi, Brigid. It's a pleasure to be here.

Brigid: Jack, let's start with you. How did Bates College decide to approach the fall semester? Will students be attending classes in person, and what about restrictions on campus life?

Jack: Bates gave students the option to opt-in to come to campus or to opt-out and remain home and do remote learning. 90% of Bates students are opting in to go back to campus. It's a pretty small minority that is staying home. Bates has a pretty robust plan in terms of mitigating COVID spreading on campus. There's a laundry list of rules that students have to follow that Bates has made clear that they're going to enforce by either asking students to finish the semester online at home, if they violate them, or for more egregious violations, they'll use academic suspension.

Brigid: Jack, are you living on campus this semester? How did the roommate selection process work there?

Jack: I am living on campus this semester. Bates has always used random rooming selections after students fill out a general personality survey. This year, that didn't really change much. We still have random rooming. My roommate, shout out to Andrew, was very excited to get to campus, and hopefully, be there as long as possible.

Brigid: Mara, you're at the University of Iowa, are they also doing a hybrid model?

Mara: Yes. I think about 66% of our classes right now have been shifted to either all online or a hybrid of some days, you're online, and some days, you're in person. Then, any classes under 50, could be in person. However, a lot of those have also switched to online. Then, Iowa also had a sort of opt-out program that you could fill out a request if you had a CDC high-risk person living with you or if you were CDC high risk or if you had some anxiety about going back to classes. If you qualified, they could make accommodations for you to not have to go to in-person classes.

Brigid: For people who are on campus, what kind of public health restrictions are in place, say, in academic buildings or dining halls, or even outside?

Mara: In all university buildings, you have to wear some sort of face covering. Most of the buildings have one-way signs on the ground. It's a continuous loop through the building so people aren't walking face to face. In terms of outside, they've added a lot more seating so that people can eat outside because our dining halls are not available to eat in. You can go pick up your food, and then, go eat it in your dorm room or outside. TAs and professors are encouraged to host their classes outside if we can, but it's Iowa, so it gets pretty cold pretty fast.

Brigid: Jon'na, what approach did the University of Mississippi land on?

Jon'na: For us, the university has left it in the hands of the professors and the classes. It's up to the professor if they want to go completely virtual or hybrid or all online. It's not necessarily in the hands of the students, it's those who have more so power.

Brigid: How do you feel about that approach?

Jon'na: I feel like it's inconsiderate because I think that the students are the ones who are learning, so we should have been given the option to choose whether we want to do it online or in person, and though they can't accommodate everyone in person, I just feel like the option would have provided more comfort to students.

Brigid: Sure. Mara, I wonder about the logistical challenges to virtual learning at your school in Iowa right now, especially given that powerful storm, the Derecho, that tore through the state last week?

Mara: That is a huge concern right now. A big portion of Cedar Rapids, where a lot of our students come from, is still without power. I know there were administrators that were without power or water for a week, and there's a big wrench in the plan a couple of weeks out from school starting. There's a lot of big planning, things are happening right now. Also, if students are still without Wi-Fi, come Monday, how are they supposed to take four online classes? Trying to figure all of those things out. We do have a few drive-up Wi-Fi spots on campus, where you can do your classes or your work from your car, but still, there are students without cars. That's a big logistical issue.

Brigid: Jack, you're a freshman, are you at all concerned about maybe a reduced face time with teachers or any challenges that could impact your future professional opportunities?

Jack: Yes, absolutely. I'm planning on studying political science at Bates, and in a political field, making connections are almost essential to getting new opportunities at, potentially, a job or an internship somewhere. Not getting that proper face time with my professors and getting to meet them and sit down with them as much as I usually would in a normal semester definitely makes me nervous. I wouldn't say that it's destroying my dream of becoming a politician, but it's definitely something on my mind, and it's definitely something that I am a little worried about going into the semester.

Brigid: Jon'na, at the University of Mississippi, you talked about wishing students had more choice, but how important was it to allow students back on campus, especially students who are potentially coming from more rural communities in the state?

Jon'na: I think that that was a very crucial part of the whole plan for the university because I'm from a small rural town, so trying to take six to seven classes online, with little to no internet access, is almost nearly impossible. You have not as many resources too like libraries and other colleges that you might go to and use their internet access and other resources like the library. I think that being back on campus, in Oxford, is the best side to coming back.

Brigid: Jon'na, one of the things that is escapable when we talk about colleges, obviously, talking about tuition. There's been some debate over whether tuition at college campuses should have been decreased given the circumstances. Has the University of Mississippi altered its costs this year?

Jon'na: As of yesterday, when I checked my bill for this semester, everything was still the same. They're charging the same tuition. They're charging the same course fees. They're charging the same for the labs. Even though, for most of these classes, we're not in person. To me, my question is, where is this money going because we're primarily, for the most part, online and virtual?

Brigid: On the flip side of that, what does that mean for, say, financial aid or access to work-study jobs? I would imagine that those are in far more limited supply.

Jon'na: Yes. From what I know, a lot of work-study jobs have limited the number of people that they are allowing to work into one or two people in the office. That puts a strain on a lot of people because they depend on that. Also, financial aid seems to be a little bit more scarce. I'm assuming because they'd given out more in the previous semester. The funds might be a little bit fewer this semester, which is interesting.

Brigid: Jack, Bates College has actually increased tuition costs this year, is that correct?

Jack: It has, yes by 3%.

Brigid: What's the college's explanation? Obviously, what's the reaction been on campus to that?

Jack: The college's explanation is that it's to subsidize testing. Bates is going to be doing COVID testing. They partnered with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard to provide testing for up to twice a week for students. However, the reaction to that was not fantastic. A lot of students are wondering why Bates wouldn't dip into their endowment? The administration said that, "This isn't the situation. This isn't the time to dip into the endowment. It's for emergencies and last resort situations." A lot of students and teachers too are wondering, "What's more emergency than this, a global pandemic?"

Brigid: Mara, you're vice president of the undergraduate student government at the University of Iowa, did the college leadership involve you in the reopening process? Were there concerns students flagged that weren't met?

Mara: We have bi-weekly meetings with the office of the president. We've definitely been in conversation since April since we went online. We got to know some things before other people did, but it never felt like our opinions were necessarily considered. Connor, who's the president of student government, and I wrote a letter to our upper-level administration a few weeks ago saying that we could not, in good conscience, support going back to in-person learning. The letter also included some things about keeping campus open for students who needed it. There were definitely some needs that didn't feel like they got met.

Brigid: How much influence did you feel like, perhaps, the state government or Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds had on the college reopenings in your state?

Mara: A lot, to our knowledge. I know that our president can tell the board of regents, who can tell the governor, that we don't want to go back to school, but those conversations, I don't think has happened. Every time we asked, that was the response we got, that we can't because of the governor.

Brigid: Mara, when you go back to class, what will your schedule look like?

Mara: I have two in-person classes and three online classes, two of which are on Zoom. You have to be there at the exact same time that you would be in person anyway. One of which is just pre-recorded lectures that I can watch whenever I want to.

Brigid: Jon’na, you're a resident assistant in one of the dorms at the University of Mississippi, in non-pandemic times, already have a lot of different responsibilities in college dorm life, how has COVID-19 changing what the role looks like?

Jon’na: A huge aspect of the job is connecting with the students, hanging out, seeing about their needs, and responding to different crises. Normally, everyone has their doors open and they're mingling, and now, we're only limiting four people in a room. They can't have outside visitors in their room from other buildings or other colleges. We also have to always have on a face mask. We can't touch anybody's personal belongings. A lot of what it looked like last year has completely went away due to the pandemic.

Brigid: Wow. Did you and your fellow RAs have to take on new responsibilities or take any COVID-specific training ahead of this semester?

Jon’na: Yes. We now have to always enforce that people are wearing a mask, that they're socially distanced, that they are practicing good hand hygiene. We've had some training on COVID-19, and we're supposed to be doing a daily symptom tracker every day. That's what we're doing now.

Brigid: RAs play such an important role watching the mental health of residents, are you prepared for that in this moment?

Jon’na: I can't say, at this very moment, that I am prepared, but I'm preparing because I know that it is really tough because as people, we like to connect with other people and to not have that aspect and to not have that comfort that other people bring, I know that that is going to take a toll on a lot of the residents this year.

Brigid: Jack, how transparent do you think undergraduate students, particularly freshmen, are going to be about their behavior with the university?

Jack: At Bates, specifically, I think that Bates is a very community-oriented school. Students apply there knowing that and go there and knowing that, but even so, it is a fear in the back of my mind that students may contract COVID. No one wants to be the student that shuts the school down and sends everybody home. Because of that, it does make me nervous that students might contract COVID-19 and not tell administration or the health department, but at Bates, specifically, I'm fairly confident that students won't do that.

Brigid: Jack, your entire family had COVID, is that correct?

Jack: It is, yes.

Brigid: How has that impacted your thoughts about on-campus living?

Jack: It was very scary to see the effects COVID can have on someone up close. My mom is immunocompromised, so she had to really deal with the worst of what COVID could offer to an individual. It really opened my eyes to something that was once just a headline I would see or statistic I would see on the news, it suddenly became very real for me. It made the prospect of going to college and of my peers going to college seem like something I should be more hesitant about.

I still am going back to campus, but it's definitely made me warier of holding my peers accountable, making sure my friends hold each other accountable and making sure that people on campus and my friends at home, too, stay more safe than they would have been had I not seen my mom deal with the effects of COVID as she did.

Brigid: I want to give you each a chance to have one final comment. I'm just wondering what hearing each other's experiences made you think about your own plans for the fall semester? Jon'na, let's start with you.

Jon'na: Honestly, I just plan to just hold everyone accountable because we're all in this together and one wrong move could shut the campus down until the spring semester.

Brigid: Mara, what about you?

Mara: Just like Jon'na said, it's about holding each other accountable. We can't do very much as students but trying to hold our administration accountable to keeping us safe because that's their job.

Brigid: Jack?

Jack: We need to be as safe as possible as student bodies. We need to do everything we can because COVID is bigger than us. It doesn't just impact us. It impacts our professors who may be older, immunocompromised. It impacts administration. It impacts custodial staff, dining staff. It's bigger than us, and we need to make sure we do everything we can to keep ourselves and everyone else who's putting their lives in danger on campus to make sure they stay safe.

Brigid: Mara Smith is a senior at the University of Iowa, Jack McAvoy is a freshman at Bates College, and Jon'na Bailey is a junior at the University of Mississippi. Thank you all so much for sharing your experiences with us. Good luck.

Jack: Thank you so much for having me.

Jon'na: It has been my pleasure.

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