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Murray State Faculty, Students Apprehensive And Optimistic About Campus Life Amid Pandemic

Liam Niemeyer
/
WKMS

Some Murray State University students and faculty are optimistic, while others are apprehensive about how the university community has handled the COVID-19 pandemic more than a month into the fall semester. Faculty and students interviewed by WKMS describe a college experience significantly altered by virus precautions, but one to which many have adapted.

 

Assistant Professor of Music Amy McCann altered all of her clarinet lessons with students to virtual sessions because of potential COVID-19 spread from simply playing the instrument.

 

“Clarinet is one of the worst in terms of aerosols. As a woodwind instrument, it's got a bunch of open holes. So anytime anybody's playing anything, there's air leaking out of it,” McCann said. “We have found that what works better is if I have them make a recording of themselves separately a day or two before the lesson. And then we watch that together.”

 

McCann said she’s better able to catch smaller mistakes from students with the recordings, though conducting lessons through streaming services like Zoom isn’t always easy with potential lag time involved. In the time she has been on campus, she believes making sure the university community follows COVID-19 precautions, such as mask use, hasn’t been a problem.

 

Murray State has reported 119 cases among faculty, staff and students as of Wednesday, a caseload that’s lower compared to other public universities in the state with higher enrollment, but higher compared to public universities in the state with similar enrollment. Morehead State University with a comparable enrollment had 75 cases as of Wednesday. Yet McCann worries about whether or not Murray State is doing enough testing to find potential cases.

 

“Yes, the numbers are low. But without regular testing, it's kind of like cockroaches. If you see a few, you know there are more. We're just not looking for them the right way,” McCann said.

 

Murray State has been testing symptomatic individuals, while some universities across the country, including the University of Kentucky, are randomly testing students for COVID-19. McCann is also worried about compounding issues that could be brought on by flu season, since the flu and COVID-19 can have similar symptoms and could make diagnosis more difficult. The university has been encouraging faculty, staff, and students to get a flu shot as soon as possible. 

 

She’s not the only one with concerns about the flu season.  

 

“I guess we’re just gonna see how this goes,” said Kylan Rogers, 21, a junior walking to one of his only in-person classes. “In the next couple of months or so, the temperature’s gonna start dropping, and people will start to come down with colds and things like that.”

 

Credit Liam Niemeyer / WKMS
/
WKMS
Kylan Rogers on his way to class at Murray State University.

 He said recent fears about COVID-19 spread at off-campus parties and social gatherings is warranted, but also said he believes extracurricular activities have been “under control” around campus. Rogers said he hasn’t been out much beyond playing sports in his friend group. He also said he feels pretty safe on campus with how the university has been enforcing social distancing and mask use, and believes the university is doing what it can to protect the community in part through offering virtual classes. 

 

“Definitely Zoom. I feel like I wasn’t too fond of it, but I’m glad it’s an option because some people are uncertain about going to class actually in-person. So the options are there. The procedures are there,” Rogers said. 

 

The newer students interviewed by WKMS are appreciative of still having an on-campus experience despite COVID-19 precautions altering routines.

 

“We’re not allowed to have visitors to the dorms, so that kind of sucks. And we’re not allowed to get together as much because everything is online,” said Lucas Green, a sophomore living in the Lee Clark College dormitory. “I think [Murray State is] doing what they can. It’s just hard to make sure everyone is wearing their masks when they’re supposed to.”

 

Green said he doesn’t think the university will continue in-person classes heading into flu season as the potential for cases rise, and wonders if Murray State had the students’ interest in mind with the risk of bringing students back to campus in the first place. But he also said the past few weeks have gone relatively smoothly, even with his anxiety about the pandemic to begin the semester. 

 

Credit Liam Niemeyer / WKMS
/
WKMS
Lucas Green wears a face mask on Murray State's campus.

  Some students told WKMS the consequences of the pandemic and virtual classes have been isolating at times, and another faculty member said she’s experiencing something similar. Melony Shemberger, a faculty regent and associate professor of journalism and mass communication, is hosting all of her classes virtually from home. 

 

“It is nice to be at home and I am fortunate, but it gets lonely,” Shemberger said. “In one of my meetings last week with some faculty, I was curious and asked one of them, ‘What's it like?’ Because she teaches on campus, and she said, it's still lonely here, too. She said the people are not, it’s not like it used to be.”

 

Yet even with that drawback, Shemberger is a strong advocate for online and virtual teaching, and believes it could be a key aspect of teaching at Murray State in the future. She helped advise other faculty over the summer with creating online courses, and was selected in July to be part of a national leadership development program for online instructors. 

 

“I think COVID has taught us ‘online’ is not the backup. It is another delivery method of instruction,” Shemberger said. “Good teaching is good teaching, no matter how it's done.”

 

Shemberger said the way the university has adapted to operating in the pandemic surpassed her expectations starting the school year, and believes that compliance with masks and social distancing is being done in part because students want to be on campus. 

 

Yet the specter of the pandemic and how she’ll adapt future classes is on her mind. She plans to teach a “Sports Media” class next spring that’s slated to be face-to-face instruction, and she doesn’t want the quality of her class instruction to suffer if classes are forced to go online.

 

“In the event that things get shakier with COVID, then I'm going to have to rethink the class,” Shemberger said. “Those are the things that kind of go through my mind, and to some extent keep me awake until I've decided to go to sleep. And I think it's not just me. I think it's a lot of faculty.”

 

"Liam Niemeyer is a reporter for the Ohio Valley Resource covering agriculture and infrastructure in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia and also serves Assistant News Director at WKMS. He has reported for public radio stations across the country from Appalachia to Alaska, most recently as a reporter for WOUB Public Media in Athens, Ohio. He is a recent alumnus of Ohio University and enjoys playing tenor saxophone in various jazz groups."
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