The News Desk Jan. 27
Welcome back to the News Desk! This week I talked to some students here at Eastern about their experiences during the pandemic. Make sure to check out the podcast- I heard from Editor-in-Chief Corryn Brock about the Douglas Hall renaming process and next week's print edition of the Daily Eastern News.
Where Are They Now: The "Students we've interviewed" edition
The Daily Eastern News has been covering the pandemic since it began, especially through the eyes of fellow students here on campus. Recently, our news editor, Madelyn Kidd, suggested that we track down some of the first students we interviewed about COVID-19 and talk to them again, asking them to reflect on what they said before and what has changed since then.
So, I tracked them down. I’d love to say I spent days of research finding these students, but Eastern’s email system makes it pretty easy to get in touch with anyone if you know their name.
Alex Mann, a senior history education major, was quoted back when she was a sophomore, right after we all learned our 2020 Spring Break would be extended to two weeks. This was the day after WHO declared that COVID-19 was a pandemic, so most of us had no idea how serious this would become. Here’s what the associate news editor of the time, Hannah Shillo, included from Mann.
Alex Mann, sophomore history education major, said she does not agree with the extent of Eastern’s decision to cancel events after spring break, but she does understand why.
“I think it’s a lot of hysteria over something that might not be that big of a deal,” Mann said. “I understand the purpose of what’s going on and why they’re doing what they’re doing; it’s just hard overall … I think if we maybe went until April, it makes more sense, especially when it comes to canceling a lot of activities that are going on.”
When I got in touch with her to get some insight on how things have changed, Mann said she was embarrassed to read that quote; again, there was no way she could have known what would happen, but it's hard to remember being that flippant about the virus. I asked her when she realized we would have to take this more seriously.
"I realized COVID-19 was a big deal when I was scared to see a friend back home, during the beginning quarantine [in] spring 2020. It was scary to feel mistrust about someone who I was so close with, especially a friend who I basically grew up with," Mann said. "On the other hand, you could never be too cautious at the beginning because you didn't know who had it."
Mann said she feels she has missed out on some of her college experience but that she really notices struggles in the high schoolers who she student teaches.
"These students never got to work through the pivotal years of junior high, where you grow and develop so much as a person," Mann said. "They are tired. They have so much thrown at them, and I must change how I teach them to accommodate that."
I was also able to talk to senior history major Liam Gardner who we interviewed when he was a junior, right at the beginning of the 2020 school year. Fall 2020 was the first semester where we started out with online classes and other COVID-19 safety protocols.
“In this environment I probably prefer online classes,” Gardner said. “I’m just looking at what’s going on around the country, and how some colleges have been going more online as time goes on, even some shutting down I hope that doesn’t happen with EIU, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it does after a while.”
Gardner told me he feels more comfortable having in person classes now that vaccines and boosters are available, but he still enjoys online classes in some cases. I asked what he thought about how Eastern has handled the pandemic and he gave me a very thoughtful response about how the first year of precautions went well, but he disagrees with more recent choices. Gardner said he would've preferred that Eastern require students to get vaccinated, and referenced the list of vaccines already required for attendance, but his comment on the negative effects we're already seeing stood out to me.
"And now this semester, as a consequence of EIU's apparent indifference to this new COVID wave, I'm experiencing half full classes–sometimes even class cancellations–because students and faculty are getting sick," Gardner said. "I've had two classes so far that had to be cancelled because the instructors were out sick–and we've only been here two weeks so far."
After two years of this pandemic, it's getting easier and easier to overlook missing a classmate or professor for a couple weeks. We're starting to see COVID-19 as more of a normal illness, even though it hasn't started acting like one.
Catch up on this week's news:
Here's a more detailed report on the current state of the pandemic here in Coles County, including specifics about campus.
The teacher shortage in America has become a serious problem. Here are some education majors' perspectives on what could be going on other than the pandemic.
Our photo section is always a delight; check out this gallery the editors put together from a recent performers by the EIU Dancers.
This upcoming event as a part of African American History Month sounds really interesting.
Listen to this week's episode of the News Desk Podcast here!
