PARK: When going back to school, safety is still first thing on our minds
COLUMN: The Queue
“Miss, do you have a mask?” was the first thing I heard on my first day of class. I fumbled a mask out of my pocket and put it on. Students entered, and everyone seemed to be thinking about masks. I saw a student stare at the professor and walk out, never returning, after hearing he must wear a mask. Soon, 150 students faced a single professor, masked up.
For me, my fellow sophomores and current juniors, we have only known college with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
After a spring semester where the mask mandate on campus, buses and in the dining hall were relaxed, we were convinced this fall would be maskless. We are in the unique position of not treading backward, but we are also not moving forward.
Going to school during a pandemic is still a real issue. In most other places in New Jersey, restrictions have diminished. On campus, restrictions are still here. Is it annoying? Perhaps. Are we as students ready to face a maskless school environment? Yes. But the necessity, especially when returning to school in person, remains.
Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) and University President Jonathan Holloway have chosen to continue to enforce the vaccine requirement, extending it to receiving the booster when eligible in order to attend in-person classes and live in Rutgers on-campus housing.
Patrica Orbe, a sophomore in the School of Nursing, is glad the mask mandate is still in effect, saying that “people still need to take (COVID-19) seriously ... Knowing that everyone in class is vaccinated makes me feel better.”
Murphy did lift testing requirements for school districts, including here at Rutgers. But, the University is still taking the precaution of requiring a vaccine, unlike some other schools, due to the continued threat it poses.
Monkeypox is another global health threat. The CDC claims that the risk is low in schools, especially compared to COVID-19. It can be spread by touching and sharing fabrics. Common college motifs like sharing clothes, communal laundry units and public transportation all fall in that category. Despite that, Rutgers will not be offering the monkeypox vaccine to students and staff, nor does it have access to it.
Dev Gandhi, also a sophomore in the School of Nursing, was concerned about monkeypox until he received the vaccine this past summer. Right now, the eligibility for the monkeypox vaccine is limited, making accessing it even harder. Gandhi says, “Rutgers has a very strong (LGBTQ+)-friendly community, and it would mean a lot if they provided the vaccine. It would provide comfort.”
In New Jersey, there are 610 cases of monkeypox as of yesterday. It has not grown exponentially fast like COVID-19, but as unexpected as the past two years have been, one can never be too cautious. During our conversation, the topic of the response from the University came up: During peak COVID-19, students received heaps of information about the disease, Rutgers must take that same initiative.
As things finally start opening up, we must be mindful of the people around us. Pandemic and health anxiety still exist, so while you may be happy with the maskless faces, normalize the difference between your peers and accept the rules made in place by our university.
On another front, members of the Uvalde community returned to school last week. While Robb Elementary remains closed, former students and their families had to prepare for the first day of school amid their healing process. Here at Rutgers — and college in general — hesitance about safety may be overshadowed by the exciting return of in-person classes, but it still exists.
Over the summer, a time when many students had left campus, there had been multiple crime alerts. As school started, students have already been receiving more. Just two years ago, there was a rise in violent crimes off campus, and they have barely subsided.
Remembering an incident outside her dorm last year, Veronica Legaspi, also a sophomore in the School of Nursing, says that crime alerts “really help when they happen right by you,” even though hearing “really upsetting news is inevitable.”
Most Rutgers juniors and seniors living near the College Ave campus and Cook and Douglass campuses live "off campus." Walking around in daylight and dusk, colorful plastic pepper spray canisters can be seen hanging off many students’ keychains. Orbe says it makes her feel better about herself that she "will always carry something to defend (herself) with.”
I cannot help but agree. Living in off-campus housing, I am up early in the morning to go to the gym and get to class, and I come home late from extracurriculars. We should not have to feel the need to defend ourselves, but that feeling is present.
As we start the second week of school, we must tread lightly. Our students feel safe on campus, but there is still a need for extra safety precautions and measures.
It is an exciting time to be back in New Brunswick: Buses are packed, dining halls are filled and the game day enthusiasm is high. The largest first-year class came to campus this month. We must ensure Rutgers remains a vibrant, exciting place by being responsible and respectful to everyone.
Annabel Park is a sophomore Rutgers Business School sophomore majoring in marketing and minoring in health administration. Her column, "The Queue," runs on alternate Tuesdays.
*Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
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