Temple freshmen move into residence halls for in-person fall semester – The Temple News
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Volunteer students work outside Morgan Hall to help students check in and find their dorms on August 20th. | RYAN ENOCH / THE TEMPLE NEWS
After virtually finishing her senior year of high school, Jocelyn Hockaday was excited to move into the White Hall to begin her freshman.
“I was bogged down with online courses in my final high school years,” said Hockaday, a freshman journalism student. “I really just wanted to experience the part of college that is living in a dorm, making friends, and actually having a professor speak to me.”
Hockaday is one of many freshmen at Temple University who moved to dormitories from August 16-20 for the fall semester of 2021, where the university is primarily offering face-to-face classes for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020. The students loved the opportunity to enjoy a more traditional college experience after many had studied virtually over the past year.
Returning students also moved to campus accommodations on August 21 and 22, according to the university’s website.
Last fall, Temple initially offered a mix of face-to-face and online classes, but switched to mostly virtual classes after two weeks due to an increase in COVID-19 cases among students and faculty, The Temple News reported. Many students living on campus chose to return home and have their room and board deposits refunded, The Temple News reported.
Sasha Westrick, a resident of 1300 Residence Hall, fears Temple will switch mainly to virtual teaching again this fall if COVID-19 cases continue to rise.
“I’m definitely worried about going back online because I want a normal freshman year,” said Westrick, a freshman double degree in biochemistry and finance.
Freshmen line up to take part in new student activities in the bell tower on August 20th. | RYAN ENOCH / THE TEMPLE NEWS
The two-week average of new COVID-19 cases reported daily in Philadelphia rose from 25 new cases on July 2 to 180 new cases on August 8, according to testing data from the Philadelphia City Department of Health.
“You can see that many other schools have just closed and everyone is going home,” Westrick said. “Having such an end to high school and then the beginning of college would be no fun.”
Other students like Austin Ziegler are more than willing to live on campus at Hardwick Hall after living at home and taking virtual classes last year, he said.
“I can’t really function well if I sit in my house all day doing schoolwork,” says Ziegler, a first year architecture student. “I wanted this college experience, like living in the dorm and actually going to every building for class and so on.”
Under the City of Philadelphia’s COVID-19 guidelines, Temple requires all students, faculty, and staff to wear masks indoors and outdoors and be fully vaccinated by October 15, The Temple News reported.
Students in on-campus dormitories are required to wear masks in dormitory common rooms and demonstrate by October 15 that they are fully vaccinated, President of the Department of Studies.
Those mandates alleviated Michael Judge’s fear of moving to Morgan Hall North and living on campus this year, he said.
“Now that I know that everyone on campus is vaccinated and we have to wear masks indoors, it takes some of that fear away,” said Richter, an unregistered freshman.
To limit the number of people in the dormitories, Temple required students to sign up for a 20-minute move-in block and only allowed two family members or friends to help them.
Jonathan But feels that his move-in process went well despite the university’s guidelines, he said.
“I moved in early and it went super smoothly,” said Aber, an undeclared newbie who moved into the dormitory on August 16, 1940. “There weren’t many people there. It’s really easy to get into my dorm and find out where everything is. “
After moving in, students spent their time meeting their roommates, exploring the city, and participating in the temple’s welcome weeks. For Dean Bruce, a freshman high school graduate who lives in 1300 Residence Hall, the highlight of his time at Temple so far has been meeting fellow students on his floor.
“Just getting to know the people on my floor was really nice because I’m there [Temple Honors] and it was really cool to meet some people who are all doing the same thing, ”said Bruce.
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