Odd Times Back On Campus

Back to in-person classes! But what does this mean for students?

For me, coming back to in-person classes was something I had been looking forward to ever since they left. Though coming up to my first day back, I was so worried about what it would be like. Would I accidentally somehow break a rule? What if a student in one of my classes is an anti-masker, and I must witness an argument? Also, we can’t walk in the tunnels?! Winter will certainly be a cold one at Carleton if I am to walk outside. Alas, amidst all these worries and complaints, it seems that Carleton as a school has taken every precaution possible to ensure Covid-19 protocols are at work. I don’t know how everyone else feels, but it was a little overwhelming at first, and I felt like I needed to scan every QR code I saw. To simplify things, and after talking with some CuScreen Ambassadors around campus, it seems that there are four main things you need to concern yourself over for coming back to campus.

1. Get vaccinated, and log onto CuScreen to confirm this. Once you have confirmed your vaccination status, it is a one-and-done form. Not vaccinated yet? Carleton will gladly vaccinate you, my friend! Get your butt to health services.
2. If you intend to step onto campus ground, you must complete a general Covid-19 screening, asking all the oh-so-familiar questions. You only need to do this once per day.
3. When entering a building, there will be a QR code at every door you can enter. Scan it, and this ensures that all people in the building are accounted for. There is apparently a surplus of the same QR codes for accessibility reasons, in case you are running late and forget to do it at the entrance of a building.
4. If you are going to a class, you must scan the QR code for that classroom; most of them have the classroom QR code on the tables inside as well. This is again to ensure that everyone is accounted for in every room if an outbreak happens. 

Some helpful links to look at include:

Classroom guidelines

Return to Campus Process  

These are interesting times to be a student, and I hope that everyone fares well as the semester continues. As nice as it is to be back on campus, I wonder what it will be like in the winter term with even more people back in person?