Glory Reitz
Editor-in-Chief
As Crowder wraps up a semester of new COVID-19 measures, students can expect the spring to hold similar precautions.
College president Glenn Coltharp said students, faculty and staff have learned to cope and been receptive of the new measures. Instructors have created online class components and students have spent less time on campus. If classes had to stop meeting, Coltharp said it would be a much shorter shutdown than it was last spring.
Coltharp said those who do catch the virus have been getting it from off-campus, and Crowder has had far less cases than the community average. As of press date, Crowder had 130 active cases and only 199 positive tests since July. This success allows the college to look forward to another semester of in-person classes.
“We’ve gotten cleaner as a campus,” Coltharp said. “We’ve gotten safer… I think we, as a nation have learned some hygiene things that have helped that maybe we learned as a little kid and we forgot.”
Coltharp said the college’s COVID taskforce meets at least once a week to reevaluate, and the number of cases in the state and county haven’t allowed Crowder to drop its guard.
Although classes have changed format to minimize contact, and everyone must wear masks, Coltharp said students would rather be on campus, experiencing classes in person.
“Nothing can beat the community that is at Crowder,” said Makenzie Ritter, general studies major. “If classes were to be switched to online then that important element would be lost.”
This semester, the December commencement ceremony will be replaced by an online congratulatory video. Coltharp said this change was unavoidable.
“The big challenge of commencement itself was putting all the bodies in the gym,” Coltharp said. “We could probably take just graduates and put them in there and spread them out safely, but each student would have people that would want to see them.”
The spring commencement ceremony is still an unknown. Coltharp said if a vaccine is available and the number of cases in the area have dropped drastically, the college might consider holding an in-person ceremony.
But Coltharp is preparing for another semester of high numbers and heavy caution. He said the college has been exploring different options for socially-distanced spring ceremony, watching what other institutions have done.
This semester, several other colleges are finishing out with all-online classes. Coltharp said Crowder does not plan to follow that example.
“Our goal is to keep the college open, keep going, and do it safely.” Coltharp said. “The more we work together, the easier it is to go through.”
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