Is USU handling COVID-19 response appropriately
Starting Wednesday, all academic courses held at Utah State University will be moved online, and classes will be canceled until then.
This change is in response to the coronavirus pandemic. In a letter to all students, faculty and staff, USU President Noelle Cockett said, “USU’s primary objective is to protect the health and safety of our campus communities throughout the state.”
Throughout campus, students have many emotions about the cancelation of classes and the shutdown of campus.
Shelby Platt, a student at USU, believes the university acted too slowly. “I think USU should have canceled classes right after spring break because of how many students who traveled over the break,” she said. “Now it feels like we are too late.”
Platt is concerned about her own health and the health of her family members. Her dad has an auto-immune disease, which causes him to be more susceptible to catching the virus and having a strong reaction.
“People need to be more considerate,” Platt said. “If you feel sick or have traveled out of the country, you need to be more careful. You don’t know who is more susceptible to the virus.”
Kelsee Thompson, a bus driver for the Aggie Shuttle, is nervous about what the closure of USU’s campus could mean for her job. “We all got the email at the same time, and our boss said we are going to have a meeting to figure out what we will be doing,” she said.
Not having a job could make things difficult for Thompson. “It’s frustrating that we won’t have jobs, and it’s going to be hard to pay bills,” she said. “But I think it’s good to prepare rather than try and react to a more serious spread and outbreak.”
According to Thompson, the Aggie Shuttle had steps set in place to disinfect the busses every hour and were prepared to continue running.
Many students agree with the university’s decision to cancel classes.
Ty Jackson, a sophomore at USU, thinks that USU is responding appropriately to the crisis.
“Like Gov. Herbert said, I think it’s better to prevent something bad from happening than to react to something worse,” he said. “So I think it appropriate, but I also don’t know if they need to be canceling school, considering there are only three cases in Utah so far.”
Another student from USU, Kara Bradford, also agrees with USU’s actions to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus, but she thinks residents of Cache County are too panicked.
“The community is definitely overreacting,” she said. “You can’t even find toilet paper at the grocery stores. I went to three stores and came back with a roll of paper towels.”
Bradford is also frustrated that now she has to take her courses online. “Yeah I think the change is necessary, but it’s definitely going to be a difficult adjustment,” she said. “We probably won’t get reimbursed for on-campus tuition, and the quality of our courses has definitely decreased.”
Some students are leaving Logan to be home with their families, but USU had advised students not to make any immediate decisions regarding their housing situations or leaving campus permanently.