By Ben Gallanter
Correspondent
For the first time in weeks, students roamed residence halls at the College without masks, allowing their friends a chance to see the lower part of their faces for what might have been the first time this semester. Students relaxed on lounge couches, did their laundry and spoke to their fellow residents, finally able to remove their masks and live a more normal residential college experience.
The College made the decision to update its residential Covid-19 policies on Feb. 10, moving down to a less strict level two status, allowing students to be unmasked in residence halls and stay overnight in other students’ on-campus residential buildings.
“I’m pretty happy about the decision,” said Zach Rice, a sophomore journalism and professional writing major student living in Decker Hall. “Now I won’t have to worry about remembering my mask when I go to do laundry or basically go anywhere in my dorm. I feel more free to move around the building comfortably.”
The rapid spread of the omicron variant forced the College to move to a level three status of precautions in the residence halls, requiring stern health and safety protocols in residential buildings for students to follow throughout the first two weeks of the semester.
“I feel safe just because I’m healthy,” said Chris Infosino, a junior criminology major living in Townhouses South. “If I was immunocompromised, I’d be more worried and it’d be a different story.”
The updated health and safety regulations in residence halls were announced in an email sent to students from Residential Education and Housing, outlining the new Covid-19 policies to all students living on-campus for the semester.
“I will still wear a mask to certain places in my building or around campus,” said Shane Dery, a freshman history major student living in Allen Hall. “It is good, though, that the school feels comfortable enough with numbers going down to do this.”
Some students felt the email and policy update in residential buildings was the correct decision, and some were excited for the new policies due to the inconvenience of the mask mandate in the residence halls.
“You walk out of your room and go ‘whoops, I forgot my mask again’ and then have to go back to get it. It’s just annoying,” said Rice. “I’m glad the numbers have dropped enough to lift the mask mandate in the buildings.”
Other students also displayed their optimism for the looser regulations to remain in the residence halls. The news of the looser regulations has allowed some to feel that a more normal and comfortable experience could be coming to residence hall life in the future.
“Hopefully the numbers will stay low and it’ll help me feel more comfortable with more time,” Dery said. “We just have to be careful and hope the spread continues to drop.”
Some students — like sophomore biology major Lauren Emerson, who lives in Townhouses East — said that they have yet to have a real college experience. For Emerson, the rescinding of the mask mandate is offering an opportunity to truly experience college life.
“I definitely have not had a true college experience. This semester is making up for it,” she said. “My mental health suffered greatly when we were remote. It affected my ability to be social. It has improved being in person.”
Now, with rapidly dropping case rates and hospitalizations, as well as the College’s announcement to rescind it’s campus-wide mask-mandate beginning March 12, to some, this semester is beginning to feel like a turning point in the pandemic.
“Everything is better than last year in terms of Covid numbers,” said Derek Tingle, a senior sociology major student living in Phelps Hall. “I think the Decker Hall testing site is helping to monitor the numbers better, too.”
Despite an optimistic outlook on the horizon, some students feel that the virus is here to stay for the time being, and because of that, it is important to pursue a more normal residential experience.
“We are two years into the pandemic and it’s not going anywhere. We have to get used to it,” said Brett Cotton, a sophomore history major living in Cromwell Hall. “We have the necessary protocols in place.”
The past several semesters have also made the social component of residential life difficult for many students; this new policy update, to some, provides an opportunity to break ground in that direction.
“At first, residence life could be awkward if you don’t know anybody,” said Anthony Barreto, a junior interactive multimedia major living in Townhouses South.
Barreto said that residence life is a lot easier for people who had previous friendships before Covid-19. He has lived with many of the same people since freshman year, which made it easier for him.
“We all need a real college experience,” Rice said.
