Murray State University

  Gov. Andy Beshear reported 1,941 new coronavirus cases Friday afternoon in his daily update on COVID-19, bringing the overall state total to 105,242 cases.

   Halloween is days away as Kentucky and Tennessee face new COVID-19 case surges, and some college students have decided not to participate in normal festivities and parties, fearing a COVID-19 case spike on their campuses following the holiday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated the flu hospitalized 400,000 Americans in 2019 and killed 22,000. Meanwhile, COVID-19 has killed 1 million people worldwide including more than 206,000 Americans, just eight months after the country's first reported case.

In line with an increase of coronavirus cases across the commonwealth, the number of reported student cases at Murray State University nearly doubled in the last week resulting in the highest case numbers since the beginning of the fall semester.

  A new recruitment effort by a white supremacist group has recently raised alarm among some students at Murray State University.

  On October 2, members of the Office of Multicultural Initiatives, Student Leadership, and Inclusive Excellence along with the Murray State University Alumni will host a Diversity Symposium. The Symposium will consist of an opening address from Dr. Aaron Thompson, President of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education and conversations from alumni and other community leaders. 

  More than 100 people, many of them Murray State University students, marched on the university’s campus Friday evening to call for policing reform and racial justice. The protest follows a grand jury’s decision earlier this week not to charge Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officers with Breonna Taylor’s death.

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.