In light of the spike in COVID cases, ACU has taken several strides to keep students safe.

One of these strides has been the temporary requirement for masks in classrooms. However, what about social distancing?

COVID-19 is still a big part in our world and while many of us are ready to move on from the disease that may not be a possibility just yet.

With the clearing of the COVID vaccine by the FDA people may finally have peace about safety concerns and myths surrounding the vaccine and while several individuals have gone ahead and taken the vaccine, there are still several people who have not.

At an institution like ACU where vaccines are not required it is essential that we continue to follow CDC guidelines concerning the virus. Since there is no way to know whether or not someone is vaccinated or unvaccinated, ACU should continue to follow the full CDC guidelines concerning unvaccinated people.

When COVID first hit in 2020, ACU did an amazing job at being proactive and protecting students while still finding a way to help students experience college life as best as they could.

The university required volunteers or teachers to clean the classrooms after each class attended, required masks, enforced social distancing by cutting down class size and location and showed compassion towards students dealing with COVID symptoms.

In many ways the university is still trying it’s best to protect students as much as they can now as well. They have had lectures where they discussed the vaccine and introduced incentives to take the vaccine, all while enforcing masks once again on campus because of an influx in COVID.

ACU has taken several steps in the past and present to protect students and faculty from COVID. When numbers spiked, they enforced masks once again but what about social distancing?

The CDC website still highly recommends social distancing between people who are not members of your household.

According to the CDC, preliminary evidence suggests that fully vaccinated people who do become infected with the Delta variant can spread the virus to others.

Even people with the vaccine can still be carriers of the Delta Variant.

In places like Teague chapel where students are seated in close quarters it could be beneficial to reintroduce zoom chapels. By introducing zoom chapels on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays it gives students the opportunities to make a choice to social distance.

While social distancing everywhere may not be possible, in the places we can, we should. Since 400 chapel credits is required for all students it can seem impossible to get all of those without attending the three big chapels on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

We all want to move on from the pandemic that seemingly took the world by storm, but before we do that we need to make sure that all of us are safe-vaccinated or unvaccinated.