While some students are dreading what they assume will become an inevitably fully online semester, how must we expect to fight the battle against COVID-19 without any optimism?
Yes, classrooms, instruction, and campus life may be radically different, but the university still has managed to bring students together in the place many of us feel is truly our home and in the safest way they possibly can.
As a campus, we cannot undermine the threat that is looming for campuses all across the nation, but we also cannot undermine the countless hours administration has put in to bring us here.
While we were trying to figure out online classes, the faculty and staff were doing the same as well as trying to find ways to safely bring us back to campus. Students are not the only ones putting in the work here; we should be thanking the university for its efforts.
However, as a student body, we must continue to do our part; this virus is not a hoax or a joke. Parties are still negligent, going against mask mandates and visitation policies is still careless and pessimism will only make things worse.
As of Aug. 24, ACU is handling 4 active cases in the community while places such as the University of Alabama, Notre Dame and North Carolina are already facing major outbreaks within the first few weeks of class. I don’t know about you, but the lack of national news coverage on campus looks like a win for the student body and university as a whole.
Though there is potential for everything to flip on its head in a matter of days because of the nature of this virus, one case throughout the entirety of Wildcat Week does not necessarily cast a bad omen on the rest of the semester.
That being said, let us not put down the administration, professors or university as a whole. Instead let us be Christ-like in recognizing we must be grateful, gracious and love one another through our physically distanced actions.
Continue to wear your masks, continue to wash your hands and continue to social distance, and we may just be the campus that does it right. And if we don’t, let us continue in whatever way we can with hope and enthusiasm.
