UCO community reacts to in-person classes

COVID-19 has shifted the way in which life on campus has functioned. After a year of virtual learning and extended classrooms, UCO has finally allowed classes to return to in-person.

The mask mandate has also lifted and now students are able to make their own decisions regarding face coverings. Most students and staff are happy with this return to normalcy but still encourage carefulness and consideration.

“Even though we’re not the most at-risk population, there are still immunocompromised people among us, so we need to be responsible for them and accountable for us too,” said Jackson Brien, a current UCO student. 

Mass Communication professor Joe Hight said in-person classes benefit his teaching.

“You see how students are interacting more than you see on Zoom. I can see how they’re gaging what I’m talking about. You know, asking them questions, spurring them on to absorb the material I am trying to teach,” said Hight.

Likewise, students have voiced their preferences for in-person classes as well.

Brien said, “I think that in-person classes can be a great way for people to learn over online, because, for me personally, a home setting is not always where I feel most inspired or motivated to learn things.”

With the launch of the Move the Needle campaign, the campus is encouraging students to do their part and get vaccinated to help us return to 100% normalcy.

“I think that it’s a good thing, I think incentives to get people vaccinated, so that we’re safer as a community is always a good thing. I think that as long as it’s something that’s in line with our morals and is a general something that’s good for the population as a whole, and nothing too questionable,” said Brien.