The questions are simple in a situation that’s anything but.
University of Alabama students are returning to Tuscaloosa from all corners of the nation and overseas, but do they feel safe? Plans are in place, but without real precedent, they are essentially theoretical with classes beginning Wednesday.
Better understanding the situation on street level meant speaking with seven Alabama students of different backgrounds, ages and circumstances. AL.com spoke with these students as they began to return to Tuscaloosa for a semester unlike any other.
They offered insight into plans made by university administrators and subcommittees for a return to in-person learning after COVID-19 abruptly scattered the student body in March.
A few responded to UA System chancellor Finis St. John’s interview with AL.com in which he said the students carry a heavy burden to responsibly follow the school’s stringent guidelines.
But it comes down to simple questions with complex answers.
Is this safe?
Can these plans work?
Will students follow the rules?
The crowded Sunday scene outside bars in Tuscaloosa drew national headlines, though they weren’t a surprise to anyone familiar with bid day celebrations of the past. It offered a window into how things could go moving into the fall where time-honored traditions meet a historic health crisis.
Other campuses that started classes last week also offered a preview of how it could go wrong in a hurry. North Carolina, for instance, ended in-person classes Monday after just a week of outbreaks on campus. The Chapel Hill school with an enrollment of 30,000 -- similar to UA’s -- shifted to online-only learning when quarantine beds ran thin as positive tests spiked.
The University of Alabama’s administration is confident things will run more smoothly in Tuscaloosa. With help from the infectious disease specialists at UAB advising all three UA campuses, the plan in place was designed to be a model for the rest of the nation.
AL.com plans to follow these students into the fall 2020 semester to see how this experiment of pandemic learning enters the trial stage.
This is how they feel before things begin. This is how they answered these simple questions.
Do you feel safe coming back to school?
Easy enough, yet like most of these topics, there are shades of gray.
“No,” said senior Farrah Sanders of Huntsville. “Not at all. It just feels like no matter what we do, no matter what we say, no matter how many councils we form or how many protocols are made, it’s just not enough.”
UA student Farrah Sanders of Huntsville.
Claire Studer of Freehold, New Jersey feels the same way.
“Honestly, I don’t trust some of the people who are going to be there as far as I can throw them,” she said. “And that’s not very far.”
Milwaukee’s Alex Hildebrand isn’t as anxious.
“Me personally, I’m not too worried about physically getting the virus from what I read so far, the younger you are, the better you can fight it off,” he said while noting his concern of an outbreak once Tuscaloosa again fills with students.
Hildebrand’s girlfriend speaks to the duality of this moment as a senior returning to Alabama. Kayla Pantaleo is driving 16 hours from Park Ridge, New Jersey so she can keep her options open. Going to syllabus week is the plan. If things don’t look and feel safe, she will pack up and head back to the New York suburbs.
“I’m thrilled to be going back, but I’m scared,” she said. “And there are way too many variables that they can’t control for it to be a safe environment.”
McKenzie Moore is on the opposite end of the college spectrum. The Hartselle High graduate is embarking on her freshman year of college with those traditional Year 1 butterflies mixing with the worst worldwide pandemic in a century.
Her father, Chris Moore, isn’t worried about his oldest daughter heading south for this new adventure.
“I guess I’m more passive about the stuff,” Chris Moore said. “She’s more ‘I’m going to wear a mask everywhere’ and I’m not that person but that’s OK.”
McKenzie Moore is the only student in this group interviewed by AL.com who is living on campus. That community, she said, is what gives her optimism.
“We are very strict about enforcing these rules and making sure we’re all safe,” she said “So, I definitely feel comfortable doing that.”
If you don’t feel safe, why come back?
It’s the natural follow up for those who aren’t feeling comfortable but coming back to school anyway.
Sanders, a news media major, is set to graduate in December. She’s involved in a number of campus activities including serving as president for My Mind Matters -- an organization focused on mental health for black and minority students -- but there’s one carrot on the string motivating this return. Does she see that final sprint for the diploma worth the risk?
“That’s a super interesting question because I’m not entirely … I think so but it’s an unfortunate yes,” she said. “I don’t want it to have to be worth the risk. It shouldn’t be worth the risk, but I need to have my college degree.”
There are financial considerations in play, too. Studer is paying $600 a month for rent in a Tuscaloosa apartment “so,” she said, “it does kind of feel pointless to sit at home.”
“This isn’t the way I want my senior year to go at all, but this is the hand we’re dealt and we just have to kind of deal with it,” Studer said. “But I’m not exactly doing somersaults and flips on my way to get back there. I take it day-by-day. I’m not rushing down there at all.”
UA student Claire Studer of Freehold, New Jersey.
Studer plans to wait for the main wave of students to move in before arriving in late August, after classes begin.
Seeing classmates take a more laissez-faire approach to the coronavirus makes her hesitant. Studer didn’t leave her New Jersey house for a month-and-a-half when UA didn’t resume classes after spring break. Near the epicenter of the worst outbreak, her home state has recorded more than 187,000 cases and 14,000 deaths.
Studer was mystified when hearing resistance to mask mandates in Alabama as cases and body counts soared in her backyard.
“I feel like the biggest thing is once you get everybody intermingling again coming from hot spots, you never know,” Studer said, “it could be a lethal cocktail.”
What about your social life? Do you plan on going out after returning?
It’s no secret the tug pulling so many students back to Tuscaloosa is the very thing that’ll be largely curbed. At least that’s the plan. The university established new punishments for students and student organizations for failing to comply with prohibitions on large gatherings.
Band parties? Nope. Mixers of any kind? Not this fall.
The City of Tuscaloosa is limiting capacity and operating hours of the bars traditionally packed with a line out the door.
“I’d say I’m comfortable being outside at a bar like Gallettes or the rooftops or somewhere like that,” said Hildebrand, the senior from the Milwaukee suburbs. “But as far as going into a bar and seeing a band when it’s all packed in there, I probably won’t be doing that. I’ll probably try to remain outside when I go out like that.”
Before leaving Tuscaloosa in May, Matthew Travis said he occasionally went out to bars but doesn’t plan on doing the same this semester. A few of his friends went to a bar over the summer and got infected with COVID-19.
“So, it just kind of worries for me to be going there because at a bar, people are going to be drinking, which means they aren’t going to have their masks and if there are going to be so many people, it’s going to be hard to enforce putting your masks on.”
UA student Matthew Travis of Charlotte.
Sanders has a good idea who is hitting the town. The view from her apartment on The Strip allowed her to spot friends on the way to the bars.
“I just have to make a mental note of ‘Yeah, I just can’t see you personally,’” she said, adding a casual look at social media also helps guide her decisions of who to allow into her inner circle.
For Moore, the bar scene isn’t an option. Still, the freshman said avoiding all social contact is just as unhealthy as frequenting parties. It’ll be a small group setup in her mind and a mask will always be part of the wardrobe.
“It’s mostly going to be me staying in my hall and not leaving,” she said. “I don’t really plan on going to anyone else’s because I don’t think we’re supposed to anyway.”
That’s what St. John wants to hear.
The chancellor on Aug. 3 acknowledged there would be “bumps in the road” but there’s a high burden on students and employees.
“The worst result would be after all of this work and this system,” St. John told AL.com, “which is so comprehensive, if faculty and students and staff don’t do their part, then it will have been for nothing and we will not be successful.”
Second-year Alabama law student Haley Czarnek had some thoughts on that.
“It just seems like the university has a skewed understanding of what their role is,” she said, “and that’s not to say they’re not taking any precautions but I would just like to see them acknowledge more that they have a responsibility not just to the students but to the community because we’re in a crisis and they are a massive presence in this community that has the ability to help end that crisis or make it a whole lot worse very quickly.”
Will the rules really be followed?
UA is a campus with 30,000-plus students. Thought processes differ.
Not everyone thinks this threat is real.
Moore is on a GroupMe chat with the incoming freshman class and, to her, most seem to be on board with health-conscious living. Some, however, treat COVID-19 “like a joke.”
“They are saying that nobody should be criticized for not wearing masks,” Moore said, “and they shouldn’t have to, and they should be able to do whatever they want.”
UA student McKenzie Moore of Hartselle.
She knows there’s only so much reason that can be inserted into that discussion.
“I think people have a mentality where they don’t understand how they could be affecting other people,” she said. “I think they’re just focused on having a good time, which I understand because I want to have a good time, too. It makes me sad that I won’t be able to do a lot of the things I want to do, but I am just hoping I can keep as many people safe as possible and I’m not going to cause any problems for anyone.”
Pantaleo worries about the reunion effect.
Like Studer, she spent the last few months just outside the epicenter of New York City. She lived through the strict lock-down orders. There are countless 18-22-year olds who spent months cooped up in their parents’ house after growing accustomed to the free-living college lifestyle.
Pantaleo knows how many will react when unleashed from their childhood bedroom
“And the fact the reports were saying young people weren’t getting this gave most of us the invincibility mindset,” she said. “I’m going to be fine and getting it won’t be bad. And that clearly couldn’t be any more false.”
Away from the social scene, the classroom setting will bring its own challenges. Large lecture halls will be limited to a few dozen instead of a few hundred with masks required everywhere indoors.
Travis was curious to see how mask rules will be enforced, saying ultimately, it’s up to everyone to hold violators accountable. So, would he speak up if a bare face was spotted?
“Not if I was walking outside between classes,” he said, “but if I was in a class and someone was just sitting there without a mask, I might -- I would probably say something.”
Hildebrand said he would be hesitant to play mask cop since he said he had friends with medical reasons to not wear a facial covering. Peer pressure will sort things out, he said since non-maskers will “get a couple funny looks.”
What is UA not seeing in this dynamic?
Chancellor St. John said student groups have been consulted throughout the fall semester planning process. There will always be factors outside their control or fall in the gaps of a plan and reality.
Part of the health measures is a self-reported symptom tracker.
“Knowing my friends,” Pantaleo said, “they’d wake up hungover and be like ‘Oh, I’m just going to report symptoms and not go to class, and I’ll be excused because of that.’ It’s great when used correctly but it has a very high potential for abuse of the system.”
UA student Kayla Pantaleo of Park Ridge, New Jersey.
Studer agrees with an alternate theory.
“It’s very easy to just fabricate the information and say I’m fine and not feeling sick at all,” she said, “and then you have a big outbreak on campus.”
Several students interviewed think a campus outbreak will lead to the semester moving online-only like in the spring.
“I think if we make it past Week 3 or Week 4 and we don’t see that spike or a bunch of people getting sick,” Hildebrand said, “I think they’re going to try to push through.”
There’s also the football factor.
If Crimson Tide football is scraped, Hildebrand thinks the exodus from Tuscaloosa will begin.
“They’re going to say ‘Hey, it’s not worth it anymore,’” he said. “If they cancel football, I don’t think they’re going to have much of an incentive to keep us there on campus.”
So, what now?
Theory becomes reality this week as classes begin in Tuscaloosa.
Bigger questions remain in how UA will handle outbreaks and if there will be transparency. The school has 450 dorm beds available in the case of positive tests among the 8,400 students living on on-campus.
Students received a notice last week that stated tuition payments were not refundable regardless whether classes remain in-person or if they have to shift to online learning.
As far as transparency goes, the school said it would release updates once the re-entry process concludes and then a minimum of once every two weeks after transitioning to the smaller sample sentinel testing.
There’s anxiety among those who’ll be on campus this fall. This wasn’t how Moore envisioned her move from Hartselle to Tuscaloosa to start her college experience. And this was far from the plan Sanders had for her final semester in college.
“I think about that probably every day,” she said.
At the same time, they recognize this is just the reality of the situation. Timing just wasn’t on their side and that traditional college experience isn’t possible this fall.
Now it’s time to put these carefully crafted plans and theories to the test.
University of Alabama students are back, but will it work?
“Honestly,” Pantaleo said. “I think -- and excuse my French -- but I think Bama is going to f--- it up for everybody. We’re going to be the school that messes everything up.”
Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.
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