After about a year of doing at-home classes, specifically being on Zoom, most students at FAMU started to make their way back to on-campus classes. While some students were relieved to be back around their peers, others found it to be quite an adjustment.
During the past year of school, students had to lean on self-accountability to make sure they were staying focused on the tasks they needed to complete. Some said that the lack of communication with higher-up officials was worse than it has ever been.
As students were still in the process of making the transition back to campus, important meetings had to be set up to ensure they were prepared for the upcoming school year. Students on campus shared unfortunate experiences with the lack of communication.
Keenan Perkins, a fourth-year biology pre-med major, transferred to FAMU from EWC during the beginning of the COVID pandemic. This is his first semester on campus as he had been on Zoom classes for the last year.
“I like the fact that school is opening back up,” Perkins said. “Don’t get me wrong, online classes had its benefits also, but I missed the face-to-face interaction with my peers and advisors.”
Students said that they are happy to finally be back in person even though students, faculty and staff are expected to wear masks at all times.
Marques Cutler, a fourth-year quantitative analysis major, didn’t believe COVID existed at first, but after seeing what has happened within the last year, he changed his opinion.
“I didn’t pay much attention to COVID when it first started because I thought it would be over sooner than later,” Cutler said. “It started to have an effect on me getting in touch with my adviser so that I could schedule my classes which is not good being the fact that I’m a senior.”
Antonia Stadom, a third year pre-occupational therapy major, transferred to FAMU from EFSC and is now a junior dealing with issues that should have been resolved months ago.
“Transferring to FAMU during the middle of a pandemic has made my transition very hard,” Stadom said. “Sometimes you could email your advisers and specific offices about problems you may have and won’t get a timely response. Due to high demand everyone has been facing this problem.”
FAMU students said they have cried out for help on getting the attention of the advisers or officials they need to get in touch with. Learning a new way of communication has been a significant challenge for everyone.
Now that everyone is back on campus, these students said they are going to try and go to the offices of the people they need to see, but with COVID may make that hard to do.