By LOGAN MERIWETHER, Student Reporter
Should Northwestern come back to school after Thanksgiving?
Many Northwestern students say they’ve had this question on their minds.
Calleb Mosburg, the university’s dean of student affairs, said the classroom is the best place to be for students’ safety, and it is the best place to be from a learning standpoint as well.
He said he does not believe that students are contracting the virus in the classroom. Contact tracing shows this, he said.
He said he believes the reason for that is because the faculty and students have done a great job of keeping the classrooms clean, and students are staying socially distanced, he said.
Mosburg said there were a lot of issues during the spring semester when Northwestern shifted to virtual learning.
He said his office had a lot of phone calls about classroom issues, which caused a lot of strain not only for teachers, but for students as well.
“A lot of students made the comment that they could not learn virtually and needed to be back in the classroom,” Mosburg said.
Mosburg said he has noticed the rise in positive COVID-19 cases not just locally, but nationally as well. He said he talked to health officials, and they told him Northwestern was doing a great job of keeping COVID-19 contained.
Mosburg said there are students and faculty who believe the university should shift to online learning after the break, and there are students and faculty who believe the university should resume in-person learning.
He said he believes it is best to keep students in the classroom as long as they continue adhering to the university’s safety guidelines.
Bo Hannaford, the university’s vice president of academic affairs, said the plan for coming back to school in-person started when Northwestern conducted a survey of students’ opinions at the beginning of the semester.
A majority of students wanted to come back to campus, he said. Hannaford said university administrators are talking daily about the university’s COVID-19 cases.
“Mosburg’s office does a great job of contact tracing, and the county health department is overwhelmed,” Hannaford said. “It can take a while to get to people. The way we have been doing it has been really efficient.”
Hannaford said he agrees with Mosburg that students aren’t getting COVID-19 in the classroom. Students haven’t reported coming into contact with it during class, he said.
He said officials are still hearing from students and faculty as well as talking with administrators to keep planning and staying updated daily.
Hannaford said the university still plans to host an in-person graduation ceremony Dec. 6.
He said graduation will probably be smaller than normal, and it will be faster. He said people were upset about the number of tickets allowed for graduation. Hannaford said the university is keeping the same guidelines as it does for classes in an effort to limit contact between people.
Elizabeth McMahan, a sophomore at Northwestern, said she is fine with coming back after Thanksgiving break because it gives her more time to train and gives her a chance to stay caught up with her professors going into finals.